“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7
There is a story I read years ago that has never left me.
The story is about a prisoner of war who was scheduled to face a firing squad the next morning. What the prisoner didn’t know was that the war had already ended. His side had won, and orders had been sent to release all prisoners immediately.
The commanding officer received the orders and went to the prisoner’s cell.
“I am going to give you a choice,” he said. “You can remain here and, at 6:00 tomorrow morning, face the firing squad. Or you can walk through that door.”
The prisoner looked toward the door and asked, “What’s on the other side?”
The captain replied, “No one knows. It is said that untold horrors await beyond it.”
Then he turned and walked away.
The captain’s assistant had overheard the entire conversation.
The next morning, as the assistant sat in the office, he heard the shots ring out. The prisoner had chosen the firing squad.
Disturbed by what had happened, the assistant went to the captain and asked, “What was really behind that door?”
The captain looked at him and simply said:
“Freedom.”
A Known Hell Over an Unknown Heaven
That story has stayed with me because it reflects something I see in human nature.
We often choose a known hell over an unknown heaven.
We cling to what we understand—even when it is destroying us—because the unknown can be terrifying.
That’s why Scripture says we walk by faith and not by sight.
When we walk by sight, we can only go as far as our experience allows. We can only move within the boundaries of what we understand. Faith, however, allows us to step into places we have never been.
A Simple Plan
When I first got sober at His Way, I had a plan.
I had become a Christian, and I was excited about my new life. My plan was simple: get into law enforcement or armed security, attend church on Sunday mornings, Sunday nights, and Wednesday nights, and maybe go on a mission trip every couple of years. I would serve faithfully and live a respectable life.
It wasn’t a bad plan.
The problem was that it was my plan.
As my six months at His Way came to an end, something in my spirit told me not to leave. Then Tom approached me and asked if I would stay and work weekends.
Honestly, it didn’t make sense.
Nobody wants to stay in a recovery program forever. I was barely hanging on to my own recovery. What business did I have helping anyone else? Why would I teach classes or mentor people when I still felt like I had so much to learn myself?
But I said yes.
And that one step of faith changed everything.
Paths I Didn’t Choose for Myself
For nearly 17 years now, God has continued to lead me down paths I never would have chosen for myself. If someone back then had described my life today, I probably wouldn’t have believed them.
Today, ministry isn’t something I do occasionally—it has become the very fabric of my life. What began with a simple step of faith led me into ministry opportunities in foreign countries, places I never would have gone had I followed my own plans. Along that journey, God brought my wife into my life, and we were blessed with children. None of that was part of the plan I had made for myself. It was far better. God took me places I had never been, introduced me to people I never would have met, and gave me blessings I never could have imagined. That’s the beauty of walking by faith rather than by sight.
The list goes on and on.
The reason I never planned this life is simple:
I had never seen it before.
I couldn’t imagine it because I had never been there.
Faith takes us where sight cannot.
The Assurance of Things Hoped For
Hebrews 11:1 defines faith this way:
“Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.”
Think about that.
We hope for sobriety. We hope for healthy marriages. We hope for restored relationships. We hope for purpose, peace, and fulfillment.
But those hopes are tied to things we often have never experienced before.
When I entered His Way, I hoped I could get sober. I believed that God could use that place as a pathway to freedom. Yet I had never seen that outcome in my own life. I had never stayed sober before.
If I had relied only on what I could see, I would have concluded that lasting recovery wasn’t possible for me.
Sight would have told me to give up.
Faith told me to keep walking.
Faith Over Fear
As human beings, we live in two realities. We have a physical nature and a spiritual nature.
The physical body will perish. Everything we can touch, see, taste, hear, and smell is temporary.
Yet the spiritual part of us—the part that will live forever—is often the part we pay the least attention to.
We tend to make decisions based on what our physical senses tell us. We rely on what we can measure, predict, and control.
But God calls us to something greater.
He calls us to be sensitive to His Spirit.
He calls us to trust His direction even when we don’t understand where the path leads.
I understand why that’s difficult.
It’s terrifying.
It’s the same fear that caused the prisoner in the story to choose execution instead of freedom.
The Significance of Faith in Recovery
I see this in recovery all the time.
When I ask a man entering recovery, “If you go back to using drugs today, where will you be a week from now?” he can usually tell me with 95% accuracy.
He knows that path.
He’s walked it before.
But if I ask him, “If you stay sober, where will you be five years from now?” he usually has no idea.
And that’s frightening.
The known—even when it’s painful—often feels safer than the unknown.
Faith requires us to step through the door anyway.
It requires us to trust that God’s plans are better than our own, even when we cannot see them.
On the Other Side of the Door
The prisoner saw a door and imagined horrors.
What was waiting on the other side was freedom.
How many times have we stood before a door that God opened and refused to walk through because we couldn’t see what was beyond it?
Faith doesn’t remove fear.
Faith simply chooses to trust God more than fear.
The greatest blessings in my life came from doors I never would have chosen to walk through on my own.
And every one of them required faith.
So today, if God is calling you somewhere you’ve never been, remember:
You don’t have to see the entire path. You only have to trust the One who does.
Walk by faith, not by sight.