"I will lead the blind by ways they have not known

Along unfamiliar paths I will guide them."

Is 42.16

I felt like the lone duck drifting along the surface of the spacious lake at the park. The afternoon sun created dancing diamonds on the water. A cool breeze made winter coats a necessity despite the April sunshine. Sitting on the strip of beach surrounded by greening mountains was a Sabbath day delight. Janelle and I inhaled the beauty. Although this was a foretaste of the possibilities of our “backyard” in the coming days, I felt alone and undirected/rudderless/afloat with the myriad of options before me.

Once the decision to purchase the Airstream travel trailer we visited last week is confirmed, there are more choices to make. “Where will you put it?” I've been asked many times. Some of those who love us think we should find a place to park the trailer locally. Maryland is where friends and family are. However, the reality is that we've remained in the area for over two and a half years and still cannot be together with most people we love.

Some others share our excitement in taking the opportunity to travel. After all, we will be living in a travel trailer. We've been thrust into a nomadic lifestyle. We're ready to embrace it. Janelle is seventeen, has graduated from high school a year early, and comes alive when we take little road trips. Seeing new horizons brings delight to her life limited by fatigue and chemical and mold sensitivities.. We've been in a survive-the-chaos-mode for a long time.

Yesterday the to-travel-or-not-to-travel internal debate threatened the peace I've been resting in. What is best? Will we remain isolated in our travels? Will our immunes systems calm down as we live in a home free from mold toxins? Is it unwise to travel, just the two of us? Are others right in thinking we should park the travel trailer here?

Dizzy from the spinning thoughts, I heard the Lord say, “Be still. What did I tell you this morning?”

The morning I had fed my soul on the myriad of underlined passages in my Bible in Isaiah. Rereading them afresh was delicious to my soul. “I am He who will sustain you....I will strengthen you....so do not fear, for I am with you...I am doing a new thing, do you not perceive it?” These are the promises that rescued me from despair not too long ago. They are a part of the firm foundation on which I stand.

I will lead the blind in ways they have not known; along unfamiliar paths I will guide them. I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.

All my life He has led. Homeless, ill and broken, He has led. He led me to the Airstream. Will He not, in His great faithfulness continue to lead?

I do no know yet where we will go with the Airstream. The assurance I needed at the end of the day, was already given to me in the morning. End of internal debate. "I will lead. I will guide."