Yesterday morning I left the house just before 530am to be at head office in Halesowen as it was my turn as a senior manager to join the leadership team meeting which runs from 9 until 5. I quite like leaving this early, but on this occasion there was dense fog and it was difficult to see my car when I stepped out of my front door, let alone think of driving for 3 hours.

As I tentatively started out I was pleased to see that the fog was not uniform across my route. After about 20 mins looking hard for signs of were to go, the fog suddenly cleared, only to return later in the journey on a number of occasion.

It did cross my mind that driving through fog can be like trying to understand the journey of our lives if we choose to make that journey a journey with God. There are times when I find myself in situations where I am quite scared, and even worried for my safety as I gingerly move ahead in full concentration, knowing that the road is there somewhere but needing to look very carefully to be able to stay on that road. Yesterday this was helped my following others that were ahead of me, although that can have its risks too.

At other times, when the fog cleared, I was able to sit back and breathe a bit of a sigh of relief as I could see the road ahead quite clearly and put my foot down on the accelerator. I enjoyed this part of the journey, and the music was turned up as it is much easier to concentrate – but these are times as well that I work on automatic and miss the stuff that is rushing past me at 70 mph (officially!)

On refection I’m not sure if I prefer the harder part of the journey, where I am searching and noticing more and having to make a great effort, or whether its the sunnier parts of the journey which seem to cost me very little. I guess I like the variety of both!

The meeting itself was great. It’s always a pleasure to experience how honest our leadership team is with each other and how enabling and encouraging they can be in their outlook. It’s good to be part of something so special!