The Following Journey

by Debbi Weeks

We drove home on Sunday from the state of Washington after visiting our son for the Thanksgiving holiday. We got up at 3:30 a.m. and left at 4:00 a.m.! We finally got home at 11:30 p.m. – 19 ½ hours in the car! I told Matt I don’t think I can do that again; I’m just too old and crickety (I know that’s not really a word, but it describes how I felt and what I looked like! ☺).

It was actually pretty smooth sailing until just south of Stockton, and then I-5 became a parking lot. It took us roughly five hours to travel about 150 miles! You can’t believe the number of cars on that road! Then the tulle fog set in. I suppose it wasn’t the worst fog, but there were places you couldn’t see 20 feet in front of the car. Everyone had to slow down; there just wasn’t any other option. We were looking forward to turning off onto Hwy. 41 (to Hwy. 46) into Paso Robles assuming that the climb would take us out of the fog – which it eventually did, but not for a LONG time.

When we got off on 41, I was driving and quite surprisingly we were the only car we could see get off of I-5. As I drove in the dark and fog, it was so difficult to see the road to stay on it. When cars came from the other direction their headlights made it almost impossible to see the road. I had been praying, but these circumstances surely increased my fervor.

After some time a truck came up behind us and I noticed he didn’t seem to be having the same difficulties I was having. We eventually got to a passing lane and he went in front of me. It was then I realized how much easier it is to drive in the fog following the taillights in front me. The oncoming traffic didn’t even bother me as much. I could almost relax as I drove with my eyes glued to the path of those blessed taillights!

Our journey home made me think of my spiritual journey. Just as I had everything I needed to drive in the fog – headlights and lines and reflectors on the road, we have everything we need to follow Christ, the Bible and the Holy Spirit – directing our path and leading and guiding us. Still the journey is made so much easier when we can follow the “taillights” of those who have gone before us. Sometimes seeing a life lived for Christ is such an encouragement along the path of righteousness. I think that’s why I love Christian biographies so much.

In I Corinthians 11:1, Paul exhorts, “Be imitators of me, just as I also am of Christ.”

Who has God placed in your life as a “taillight” and who can you be a “taillight” for? Perhaps it’s someone in your own home or maybe you’ll need to look a little further – whichever it is be a Christ imitator on this following journey.


Father God I praise You for your guidance and direction in this life that takes different forms. I praise You for providing Your Spirit and Your Word to teach us. I praise You, too, for providing brothers and sisters in Christ that we can imitate.
I confess I sometimes close my eyes to all that You have provided and I forget that others may be following me.
Thank You that You allowed us to arrive home safely. Thank You for providing taillights for us to follow in the fog of our physical lives as well as in our spiritual lives.
Please allow me to imitate those who imitate You and thereby follow You closely.
In Christ’s Name, Amen.