Enter the Fog

Saturday we had to leave the house before 7 AM to get to mission trip training for my girls in OKC.  The fog was heavy across the backroads between Tishomingo and I-35.  At times I couldn’t see more than 50 feet in front of me.  When we went up a hill the fog lessened, but as we went down the valleys it came back with a vengeance.  It’s scary traveling in a car with my family when you can’t see where you are going.  I gripped the steering wheel tighter, knowing my family’s safety was on the line.  The truth is that the only way to get through the fog is to go through the fog.  That’s not real deep, but it is real true.   

The thing about fog is you can’t make it go away.  Use the defroster or fog lights to see a little better.  But you are still at mercy of things beyond your control.  Thankfully for us the sun burned off the fog, but in my own life I’ve lived in fogs that seem to last for years, decades, or a lifetime.  I keep waiting for it to burn off, but it’s still there every time I look.   

I thought about this all the way home after hearing some hard news about someone close to me.   I want to take the pastoral role and tell them it will all be ok, that it will work out, that everything will be ok.  But the truth is I really don’t know. Anyone who says otherwise is just not telling the truth either.   The fog of hardship, tragedy, and suffering makes it hard to see God’s road in front of us.   

I’ve had to learn as a pastor that it’s ok to sit in silence with someone in pain.  I’ve had to do it in my own pain often, and you have too.  Anyone who lives on this earth will feel the struggle of shattered dreams.  Those dreams that take a lifetime to build come crashing down in an instant. The fog is thick and it’s hard to see God’s leading.  What do we do? 

I don’t know how else to say this, so I’ll jump right into it. Sometimes it’s hard for me to trust God.  It’s not that God is not worthy of trust, just to get that out of the way.  But it sure is hard for me to see sometimes.  It’s hard to see God’s leading often, even.  I want to trust God, I really do.  I pray, beg, plead, cry.  But I still don’t see the way forward.  So what do we do?

I’d like to give the pastoral answer.  It’s what I have been trained to do.  But that’s not always much help.  It’s easy to give trite advice and platitudes.  It’s a lot harder to sit with someone in the valleys and confront the uncertainty and doubt in our own hearts.  So I just sit down beside them, hold them tight, and tell them we will follow God together as best we can.   

I know there is someone in your life who needs to hear that today.  Don’t offer answers or wisdom, give them friendship.  Hug someone and tell them you love them today.  Following Jesus together is the only way we can all get through this life.