Waiting For The Fog To Lift
It’s Saturday morning following a somewhat non-eventful week. To be sure, there was much going on these past days, as evidenced in the sense of fatigue - but the fatigue is internal, a sense of feeling ‘spent’ or ‘empty’ hangs like fog on a cool March morning.
Some Saturdays we fire out of bed, some we are intentional about resting our way into the day, and some are just foggy.
If you had to rate all the different types of weather-related realities in life, I think it would be safe to say that fog would sit near the bottom of that list for a lot of us. You’ve probably never revelled in the memory of a foggy trip to the ocean, lake, mountains, anywhere. We went to the beach, it was totally socked in - the fog just made it awesome! (said no one anywhere).
Fog itself can be beautiful to look at in nature. But in life, when you feel (see) in a foggy way or season - not so beautiful. We see the fog and want for it to lift, to dissipate, to go away.
I’m writing about this as somewhat of a personal catharsis, I suppose. I’m in a season of foggy waiting on some things that are pretty significant. They involve matters of health and wellness for folks I care about, some matters of career and financial uncertainty for others, relational challenges, the list goes on.
How we wait, while we want for the lifting of the fog, matters.
In the spirit of deep friendship and care-to-encourage, I’d like to focus attention on the words of a great prophet, a man who lived and served during very foggy and troubling times amidst folks who knew a little about challenge and difficulty.
The prophet Isaiah worked and served almost 3000 years ago amidst the Jewish people who lived both under tremendous societal oppression and collective self indulgence. (to oversimplify the times: when it was extremely hard, the people complained and moaned about it, wondering if relief would come from the heavens - when things got easier, they went on their own laissez faire way - the fog, thus never lifted).
Isaiah lived and served his countrymen for a long time (60+ years in fact…which mirrors how old I am now, coincidentally). Somewhere during that storied history of serving, he wrote these words to those he cared about, those he was commissioned to work with and alongside of, folks who remained socked in by the fogginess of life, some of which was happening to them and some of which was the result of their own doing:
“Do you not know? Have you not heard? The Everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth does not become weary or tired. His understanding is inscrutable. He gives strength to the weary, and to him who lacks might He increases power. Though youths grow weary and tired, and vigorous men stumble badly, yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength; they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.”
There are no silver bullets here, just keys to how we focus while we endure days or seasons where the fog lingers. The fog of fatigue and weariness is a time where we are invited to refocus on the One who holds us while we wait. The only other option is to focus on the foggy situation and succumb to a life where we wish it would go away.
Hope is available in the waiting because of the One with whom and on whom we wait. He is not tiresome, unaware or unable to see the way through, forward and onward.
Be sustained in hope today as you turn your focus to the One who is able to keep you now and through the fog.
Peace~
Craig
