When the Fog Lifts

One of the wisest people I’ve ever crossed paths with was my Granny. Content, consistent, and carefree, she seemed to have an innate knack for just rolling with whatever life threw at her. Often times when she was confided in concerning one of life’s difficulties, her advice would simply be, “Baby, just give it time, and it’ll be alright.” In the midst of madness, that isn’t what our ears tend to want to hear, but perhaps “give it time” is the wisest thing to do when our knee-jerk reactions tend to be the wrong thing to do. Considering the foggy state of affairs as we look across the landscape of our present day, I have found myself replaying those words through my mind over and over again – “Just give it time.” And so I try to do that…

I can recall days in the field and on the water that were temporarily interrupted by an impenetrable blanket of fog. From the stand, I couldn’t see the well-worn trail I knew deer used regularly, and from the boat deck, I couldn’t make out the path through the stumps that led to the pocket I knew held a stack of big bass. I couldn’t see them…but I knew they were there. I just needed the fog to lift. And for that, I had to wait – perhaps the hardest discipline to learn for someone that wants things to happen right now! Like Granny said so many times, “Just give it time…” ahh, yes, time – It takes time for the fog to lift.

Two truths I want to drive home for us right now. 1 – The Living God has all power to lift whatever fog seems to be blanketing our visions in life. (Matthew 28:18). 2 – God’s timing and our timing aren’t always on the same clock. (Isaiah 55:8). Blankets of fog will indeed confuse us from time to time as we go through life. During these seasons, we won’t be able to see what’s coming next, which way to go, or why it’s happening in the first place. As you wait on the fog to lift, dear friend, may I ask you to make one adjustment? Perhaps taking the question of “Why?” that has a tendency to come up in life’s foggy moments and turning it to the question of “What?” will bring some light and clarity into the midst of the dimness and gloominess. Rather than saying, “Why, God am I going through this?”, plead, “What, God, are you trying to teach me through this?”. From the mouth of the Master, we have a promise that when we pray like that, we will find the answer (Matthew 7:7)…but always in the perfect timing of God (John 11)!

Friend, there will be times when the fog seems as heavy as lead and as thick as a West Bay brier patch, but if we focus on the Lord, it will be as Granny used to say, “Just give it time, and it’ll be alright.” (Matthew 6:33). So the next time the fog rolls in and there’s more month at the end of the paycheck, more questions than answers, and more worry than comfort, remember to seek the Lord first and trust in both His power to fix it and His timing to do it when it is best. And then we’ll talk it over sometime in the future as we float down the Calcasieu River, hike along a wooded trail, or meet up at the tailgate in West Bay. I trust God will lift the fog as we seek Him and find Him…In the Great Outdoors!