God May Ask You to Move Forward Without Seeing

Sometimes, living a life faithful to Christ in what he sets before us can leave us desiring to see more from him. It can seem he is asking us to obey his promptings blindfolded. We often just need to pause and listen, and then be faithful to do something. These experiences were modelled in the great outdoors by 11 students, including myself, in Colorado.

One morning, we all got outside for top-rope rock climbing. In every scenario, the belayer is attentively ensuring the climber is moving up the rock without risk of falling. As a climber, you put your full trust in the one belaying you. Our guides raised the ante. Out came the blindfolds—for the climbers, of course!

So, there we were climbing up the rock faces relying only on our trusty friend's instructions and feeling around. Just listening, and making the next move.

Trust becomes especially difficult when part—or all—of the picture is hidden from us. We are like that with God at times. (2 Cor. 5:7) When feeling around, searching for a way to move forward, we have to listen intently for instructions. However, the option to do nothing does not exist. To move forward, we have to take steps to reach for what is next. Living out Proverbs 3 can be difficult. When climbing, it can be easy to blindly take a less helpful route that ends up being even more challenging, because we are only going by feeling. We often need a sense of direction from the one who sees the whole picture.

Yet there can be freedom in this. Often when standing at the base of a rock face, the climb can look daunting and impossible. The climber may even decide not to do the challenge. Worse yet, getting partway up a climb, the remaining route just looks as if there's no way you're going to reach the rest. Sometimes not knowing is the best thing for us. God gives us exactly what he wants us to know—the rest belongs to God. In fact, not letting one’s vision betray you on a rock wall allows one to climb further than they would have thought, had they seen the whole wall. The full picture is not always good. God's faithfulness is. (1 Cor 13:12)

You may have experienced this in a job, a move, a friendship, or an educational endeavor. For example, I am very glad I did not know how trying, rigorous, and long the pursuit of an engineering degree would be for me. At the age I began, I would have lacked the maturity and insight to willingly endure or believe I could do what was ahead. We see several people in scripture who also, by faith, listen to the direction of the Lord, not knowing the full extent.

Abraham is repeatedly commended for his faith (Heb. 11:8-12) when given the promise of many descendants, all while he had no son. David foresaw neither being hunted down by Saul when anointed king nor his subsequent victories. The apostles on many occasions had their plans upended, and locations altered—yet their mission remained the same.

One small example for us students in Colorado was when unforeseen circumstances delayed the day we were to backpack and thus inhibited one of the times set to evangelize. However, God had different plans where we did get to “remove the blindfold”. That evening, we students went to grab some dinner in lieu of the expected freeze-dried meal. We had a very kind waiter who took special interest in why we all were there. He openly shared his previous experience with the church, his background, and his issues with religious people. Long story short, we were able to present the gospel to him, and he, in fact, was really appreciative. He was so glad we shared what we did with him! It seemed that for that evening, the Lord wanted the waiter to hear the gospel.

More often, we are in seasons where just normal life happens, and it can feel like it's been a long time since we got to take off the blindfold. So, what do we do?  We have to remember that all we can do is listen, trust God, and make the next move.