First Baptist Church of Herndon

Fog

Linda Soller | Jan 23, 2023

Driving home from our church the other night I found myself going in and out of fog. Each little valley or gully was full of dense fog so thick it was nearly impossible to see. When you came up the hill on the other side the sky would be clear.  The combination of the fog and the darkness made driving somewhat hazardous. When I was creeping along, I thought how glad I was not to have to regularly deal with fog. Each time I came to a clearing I hoped I would not sink back down into the dense fog. Each time I was wrong.

Nature has a funny way of teaching us life-lessons if we are paying attention. The meeting I had just left at church was registration for the upcoming session of our English Language Learning for adults. Our students come, voluntarily to class. They have journeyed from a variety of locations and speak many different languages. They want and need to speak English. As I contemplated the fog, I thought this is what their life must feel like much of the time. They journey toward their future. Some are in control of where they have ended up and others not. They probably feel like much of their time is spent in the gullies and valleys where the fog is thick and hides what waits on the other side. Just as they come into a clearing, they see life will be taking them back down into a new misty cloudy unknown. I wondered how many times in their up and down life they have asked themselves if it would ever get easier. Would the fog ever go away?

As we go about our daily life it’s important to keep the fog in mind. It can roll in when we least expect it, it can blanket the area and cloud our vision. It can seem to hover relentlessly in one spot while only a few steps away it’s clear. It can make decisions challenging and movement dangerous. Still in the end it’s just fog, and we all know it will eventually lift. 

Be the love in the world  : )   Linda