Have I not commanded you? be strong and courageous. do not be afraid. Do not be discouraged. For The Lord your God will be with you wherever you go. – Joshua 1:9

In his book, Facing Your Giants, Max Lucado tells the story of Florence Chadwick’s 1952 attempt to swim the cold waters between Catalina Island and the California shore. Battling fog, choppy seas, and muscle cramps, she ended her challenge swim before reaching her goal despite her mother’s encouragement from the boat to continue on. Minutes after she got into the boat the fog lifted and they discovered they were only a half mile from shore. “All I could see was the fog,” she explained at a news conference. “I think if I could have seen the shore, I would have made it.”

There have been a number of times during the Leukemia treatments that I felt I was swimming against the currents, seeing very little ahead of my present situation. Fog is a darkness that hides things. Who would have known during the darkest moments of this last week, that the sight of recovery and discharge was only days away? In such trials, we learn that faith carries us because it perseveres. In short, faith doesn’t lie around; faith works!

What ‘shore’ are you reaching for right now? If the fog of life is hiding that shore from your eyes, ask God to shine His light to show you the path to your goal. He sent Jesus for this very reason.

Forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus. — Philippians 3:13–14