“For the Lord God is our sun and shield. He gives us grace and glory. The Lord will withhold no good thing from those who do what is right. O Lord of Heaven’s Armies, what joy for those who trust in You.” (Psalm 84:11-12 NLT)
One of the most difficult and scary environments in which to drive is in heavy snow or dense fog. When you can barely see the front of your car, let alone another car; when your own light’s glare, as they shine off the snow/fog, preventing you from seeing where you are, not to mention where you want to go.
That can happen to us in our walk with Jesus. It can happen when we lose a loved one, at the loss of a job or opportunity, when our health fails, or when life just seems to close in on us. It happened to me when my wife left.
Another way to think of this is when we lose hope, when the light of Christ’s life and love are dimmed due to heartache or loss. These are, admittedly, the darkest and most difficult chapters of our lives. But here’s the good news – they come to pass, not to stay!
Perhaps you or someone close to you is experiencing one of those foggy seasons. No matter what you say or do, it doesn’t seem to matter. It’s as though they’ve become a different person. Words just bounce off of them, your efforts to help just go unnoticed and unacknowledged. Or if it’s you that’s struggling, it’s like you’re numb to the world around you.
What we hear when others are trying to speak “truth” or “sense” to us, is “blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” We hear the words, but it’s like they just don’t make any sense to us. We’re so numb and the darkness is so blinding, we can’t hear even if we wanted to. So, what needs to happen?
We need time to heal; time to reorient any sense of logic that prevents us from “seeing” or understanding what we’re going through. The popular saying is “time heals all wounds,” but that’s a lie. Time doesn’t heal anything. Only God can ultimately heal our sickness, whether physical, spiritual, emotional, or otherwise.
Yes, of course, it takes time, but our dependence needs to be on the Healer, not simply marking the calendar in anticipation of something “magical” happening after the passage of time. Our confidence is in the fact that God NEVER leaves or forsakes us, regardless of how we feel. The fact is, if we could sort through the lies we believe about whatever happened, beginning with the ones that place us at the center of the blame, at that point healing can begin.
Blame is the killer of a lot of people’s hope. We blame ourselves for another’s or our own death, whether literal or figuratively. We begin the tortuous “if only’s” – if only I’d seen that other car! If only I’d been a better spouse, mother, father, sibling, or friend! If only ____________, and you can fill in the blank. I blamed myself for years for the breakup of my marriage and the waywardness of my children from the Lord.
It’s a horrible place in which to live. But ultimately, as the “fog” clears and we begin to see what happened for what it is, not for what we’ve created it to have been in our memory, we understand that God is still on His throne; He’s still the Sovereign over all creation, and He can still cause “everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to His purpose for them.” (Romans 8:28)
I love how Ron Hutchcraft describes it: “Yes, the fog’s been billowing up. Yes, it’s been filling your view and maybe even making you forget the sun sometimes. But the fog can never ultimately win. Don’t lose hope now. Don’t stop trusting now. Don’t stop doing what you know is right just because the fog has rolled in. The light may have been delayed, but there’s no way it can be canceled. The sun’s coming up, and the fog doesn’t stand a chance!”
Blessings, Ed 😊
Walking With Jesus 