The Edge of a Fog

A few weeks ago, I started reading The Pilgrim’s Progress in my spare time.  The book has been an very enjoyable read, and I honestly think it’s a book that every new believer should spend time reading or listening to.  There’s been a lot that I wanted to talk about in the book, and I was about to start writing something about it, but I’ve decided to write a little something that doesn’t directly involve the book, but can possible relate.

There’s a saying, if you could call it that, by someone I know that goes like this: “I just don’t know”.  I’ve caught myself saying, or rather thinking that a lot here lately.  I just don’t know.  God’s up to something, but I really just don’t understand what or his purpose for it.  Yet.  I know that He’s up to something and I know it’s going to be a whole lot better than I’ve ever imagined it to be.

One morning while I was about to drive over the bridge to go to work, I was thinking and wondering about how life sometimes is like living in a fog.  Sometimes in your walk with Christ, I believe that’s what life is like.  There’s a place we need to be, but not a place we are just yet.  If we saw that distant place where we need to be (in it’s entirety), I think it’d either overwhelm us, push us to pride or push us to something else unholy.  Instead, along the way we’re giving just little bits and pieces as to what God has in store, but not enough to hinder the journey that must happen along the way.  In that journey is a lot of things that, quite honestly, aren’t always easy, desired, or quick to go through.  Sometimes there’s lessons that we have to learn that could take months.  Sometimes there’s loneliness that must come.  There’s a lot of different things that will come our way.

Just like the great men of the Bible, we have to persevere.  We have to be courageous.  We have to be willing to let go and let God work.  Think about it, many of the great men of the Bible had to go years without the promise God had given them.  There were many days of loneliness and depression that these men went through.  Life, the Christian life, is a process, a continue process, one that calls us to daily die to ourselves and yield to His calling and direction.  Some days it may be easy; other days it may be the hardest thing to do.

As with a fog, when you’re in the area general area of an object or a group of people, things seem clear.  Such it is with our walk.  Put another way, it’s baby steps.  You can’t just run all the way up the mountain and clear the fog.  I was talking with someone tonight who told me that you just have to take small steps, one at a time.  This is something that I’ve really had to learn lately because I look at the big picture of something and sometimes get overwhelmed, when if it’s just broken up into smaller steps, it’s much more manageable and actually an easy thing to get accomplished.

There’s a quote I stole from somewhere that says, “don’t rely on feelings, but on God’s faithfulness”.  Always He’s faithful.  There’s a song by Hillsong called “You Are Faithful” that I really like because no matter what our circumstances and no matter what’s going on, He is Faithful.  “Always You’re with me / Your hand will lift me / My trust is in Your hands”.  No matter what, he is faithful and just like God said to Joshua, he will never leave us or forsaken us, or as another translation puts it “I will not fail you or abandon you“.

Has anyone else felt like they were living in a fog?  Be strong, take courage, and run the race that Christ has set forth in order that we may win the prize.  It may not always be easy, but the end will justify the pain it took to get us there.  And remember: it’s not about you.  You aren’t in control.  Christ is in control.  We have to let go of the wheel and surrender complete control.  Finally remember, His ways are perfect while ours, on our own, will always fall short.