It was like stepping into another world; a world where visibility is poor as you are submerged in a misty darkness.  The heavy fog flowed and moved in currents of vapor that swallowed the sun.  Everything was held captive by the greedy mist that had crept in while I slept.  As I crawl slowly on this forgotten country road I struggle to see the hidden path that stretches before me.

        I am driving so slowly that I almost overlook this lonely tree propped up on this crooked fence.  I am forced to turn around and take a second look at this solitary stranger standing defiantly in the fog.  As I peer into the soupy mist I begin to question what I am really looking at.  Am I looking at the mist or am I looking at the tree?  Do I only see the fence and the fog or can I see beyond the barriers?  Am I focusing on the negative or the positive?  The answer may say a lot about the real me.

        When faced with difficulties, obstructions, hindrances and complications what do we choose to focus on?  Do we see only the obstacles or can we see opportunities?  Are we driving in the fog today saying, “I can’t see anything”; or can we change our focus and say, “Look at that beautiful tree”?  The choice is really up to us.  We choose every day what we are going to see; what we are going to look for.  Our attitude establishes our direction and our direction determines our destination.

        Let me ask you something; as you travel through the fog today, what do you see?  As you are faced with problems at work can you see the opportunities buried in mist?  When peering into the fierce eyes of difficult people can you look beyond the barriers and see a possibility hidden inside?  Today are we going to build bridges or are we going to be content with crooked fences?  Remember, happiness is a choice; choose to look beyond the barriers.

Something to think about:

• An obstacle is often an unrecognized opportunity. . . Obstacles are opportunities in disguise.

• Obstacles are those frightful things you see when you take your eyes off the goal.

• Never think you could do something if only you had a different lot and sphere assigned you. What you call hindrances, obstacles, discouragements, are probably God’s opportunities.

• Obstacles in the pathway of the weak become stepping-stones in the pathway of the strong.

• Success is to be measured not so much by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles that he has overcome while trying to succeed.

• Most people don’t mind obstacles as long as they don’t get in their way.

• If you find a pathway with no obstacles, it probably doesn’t lead anywhere.

Thankful for the fog that helped me see the tree
Rickey Moore