Don’t stare at the fog

September 28, 2010 | 2 comments

A good friend of mine told me a story with a moral that I wanted to pass on to you.

She was traveling with friends and family up in the high mountains a couple of weeks ago when fog thick as pea soup settled in and made driving virtually impossible. On gravel roads, negotiating switchbacks, hairpin curves and having no lines on the road, it was a bit terrifying for them to drive at all. Staring out into the fog was no help. There was no road to see. But they needed to keep moving.

With some prayer and spiritual listening, the passengers soon figured out that they could open their windows, look straight down to the ground and see a bit of the road. Barking instructions back to the driver “Go right. Go left. You’re okay,” they made it safely down the steep terrain.

This is a very brief version of a much longer and eventful story! But afterward, I thought, this has so many lessons for challenges and trials faced everyday.

How often do we waste time “staring into the fog” and getting nowhere?

The “fog” could be debt, unemployment, conflict, anger, depression, and any other state of mortal mind that denies the omnipresence of God’s infinite ever-present love and care.

If we get too impressed with evil, our thinking can go numb, idle, be overwhelmed with fear, see nowhere to go and consent to hopelessness. When this happens it’s time to roll down the windows, break out of that mesmerized trance and start searching for the edge of the road. We might glimpse only a little bit, but that’s all it takes to start moving ahead. Bit by bit, we’ll move on down the road of progress, leave the fog behind and find the clear open skies of Truth where there is no more obscurity, no more feeling of hopelessness and no more fear.

So, if you’re standing idle today, not going anywhere, snap out of it! Quit staring at the fog. Look for the edge of the road and get moving. God will take you by the hand and lead you to a better place.

Happy day.

2 thoughts on “Don’t stare at the fog”

  1. thank you so much for this! i’ve had to drive / navigate through fog also & done this – opened my car door and gone very slowly.

    one time i was driving through a light fog. and my headlights hit a school bus… all the gorgeous glowing of the golden reflection on the school bus…

    it made me realize that even though the fog obscured the school bus & made it look fuzzy & blurry – it was STILL radiant and beautiful behind the fog. it hadn’t changed shape or color or size … and light illuminated it.

    this was so inspiring to me.

    “But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the face of the ground….” ~ Genesis 2

    ~ Jodi Beatty, CS
    Oakton, VA

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