This next Sunday we’ll be looking at David’s out-pouring of praise and thanksgiving in 2 Samuel 22. I ran across a poignant little story that well illustrates a point a want to make on Sunday about verse 29 and the limits of lamp light on a long dark path (the point I’m going for in this illustration is NOT the self-reliance piece)
When a person is suddenly alone, often panic and fear come. I distinctly remember my mother saying to me after my father’s death, “I cannot go on without him. I depended on him for everything.” My mother believed that, but she did go on without him. In fact, she lived twenty-five wonderful years after my father died. I remember that one of the things that bothered my mother was that she could not drive a car. She learned that she could live without driving a car. I feel that the most creative years of my mother’s life were the years when she was forced to depend on herself. She had her anxious moments, but somewhere along the way she learned the old expression, “Life by the yard is hard, life by the inch is a cinch.” Charles Allen, You are Never Alone (Old Tappan, New Jersey, Fleming H. Revel, 1978), 88.
So if we find ourselves twisted up with worry – or to sticking with the analogy – if we keep tripping up – perhaps we’re trying to look too far into the future, while God is only shedding light on our next steps! 
Grace Notes 