Visibility is a measure of the distance at which an object or light can be clearly discerned. Visibility may vary according to the direction and angle of view and the height of the observer. Visibility is affected by the presence of fog, clouds, haze and precipitation.

Skybrary Aviation Safety

As one might imagine, visibility is pretty critical to flight safety. It’s a value that has all sorts of classifications and accompanying regulations, restrictions, and procedures. Pilots can obtain special training to fly into and through reduced-visibility conditions, and while all piloting requires proper discernment of and response to both current and future meteorological conditions, flight in low-visibility conditions requires a more in-depth understanding of such, as well as the ability to navigate solely by reference to instruments inside the cockpit. This means that when a pilot cannot look out her window and see the horizon, much less the ground beneath her, she must trust her training and her ability to interpret what the instruments tell her is true and react appropriately rather than succumb to the various effects of feeling: spatial disorientation and fear.

In life, just as in the cockpit, proceeding into and through low-visibility conditions requires that we change our focus and trust our training rather than our feelings.

I think God, who sees all things at all times, allows the fog, clouds, haze, and precipitation into our lives sometimes to limit our visibility and force us to stop fixating on the horizon. When our visibility is unlimited, it’s easy to get a little lazy and safe and even lost in the vastness of it all and to feel small and insignificant, which is a beautiful and necessary kind of humility, but there are also times when we need to know that we do matter in the grand scheme–that we are each unique and special and known by the Creator of all things. When our visibility becomes limited by conditions beyond our control, we are forced to focus more closely on the internal gauge–the Holy Spirit within–who communicates what is actually happening despite what we feel, and assures us of Truth regardless of our fears.

This past week I drove my son to an early-morning appointment which required him to be under anesthesia and prohibited him from driving himself home afterward. As I was sitting in the waiting room, I began feeling anxious about the coming evening’s family meal: Who all would be there? What kind of mood would everyone be in? How would I positively affect the bad moods rather than be affected by them? Would I have time to go to the store and prepare a meal everyone would like? And on and on. It was rather ridiculous.

And then the Lord said something pretty powerful to me: “Don’t look too far ahead.”

Simple. Clear. Concise.

I used to think “too far ahead” was weeks, months, or even years. But in that surgical waiting room, what God clarified is this: When conditions are particularly challenging, looking forward even a few hours can be dangerous; instead of focusing on the immediate moment and its needs, we can get overwhelmed by emotion and fear and what ifs. As I mulled over God’s wisdom, a certain piece of Scripture came to mind from Matthew’s Gospel account of Jesus’s words:

“’Therefore I tell you, do not be anxious about your life, what you will eat or what you will drink, nor about your body, what you will put on. Is not life more than food, and the body more than clothing? 

Look at the birds of the air: they neither sow nor reap nor gather into barns, and yet your heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not of more value than they? And which of you by being anxious can add a single hour to his span of life?

And why are you anxious about clothing? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow: they neither toil nor spin, yet I tell you, even Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these. 

But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is alive and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith? 

Therefore do not be anxious, saying, ‘What shall we eat?’ or ‘What shall we drink?’ or ‘What shall we wear?’ 

For the Gentiles seek after all these things, and your heavenly Father knows that you need them all. 

But seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness, and all these things will be added to you.

Therefore do not be anxious about tomorrow, for tomorrow will be anxious for itself. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.'”

Matthew 6:25-34

The reality is that I usually handle most situations in life without falling apart. Lately, however, my attention has been on the horizon, the hugeness of an unpredictable life and future. Accustomed as I have become to unlimited ceilings and visibility, the sudden change of circumstances caused panic and fear, which led me to question what I know to be true from studying God’s word and from experience, what I remember when I take a moment to catch my breath and focus on Him: that He is faithful and can be trusted to equip me with all I need to function in peace, harmony, and competence. In the waiting, literally, God reminded me He is always near, and that for now, one moment at a time is all I need to focus on.