Fog Prayer
February 6th, 2008 Posted in Uncategorized
On a recent morning the light of day was coming more slowly than normal for a fog hugged the ground like a heavy, wet blanket. I was out for my usual early morning walk that doubles as my time to connect with God. The remaining darkness and heavy fog conspired to cause the landscape to quickly fade into gray, a compromise of the black of dark and the white of fog.
I walked a different route on this foggy morning, heading out into the middle of a field. Eventually I had myself placed in the center of the field. No matter where I turned to look, there was nothing distinct to see. In all directions all I could see was a faint hint of the trees that bordered the field.
The world had nearly faded away, nothing of the world being clear to me. It was a good metaphor of where I wanted to be at that moment, close to God and far from the world. So often the world is clear to me (it hammers away at my five senses) and God is frequently a bit foggy. I had reversed things for the moment! It reminds me of the old hymn Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus which contains the line, “And the things of this world will grow strangely dim in the light of his glory and grace.”
Of course, I had to walk back out of the field, out of the fog and into the rest of my day. I couldn’t stay there forever. I didn’t try, nor do I recommend, staying in a fog! Still, it can be good to mentally focus inward, to push everything else away a bit, so that we can better focus on God, who seeks to dwell within us.
People of faith have been criticized for being “so heavenly minded that they’re no earthly good” but I think an equally great danger is to be so earthly minded that we’re no heavenly good! The person who regularly pushes the world away to a distance so God can be experienced close is the same person who can do the most good in the world.
Thomas R. Kelly wrote of God that “He plucks the world out of our hearts, loosening the chains of attachment. And He hurls the world into our hearts, where we and He together carry it in infinitely tender love.” (A Testament of Devotion, pp.43-44) I take it that we’re supposed to make the best of both worlds!
Dave
One Response to “Fog Prayer”
By Marcena on Feb 7, 2008
As I drove home from work late the other night in the fog, I tuned into my favorite npr station and listened to the stories of survival and spiritual renewal of the families who are victims of the recent tornadoes and floods. I stopped the car and thanked God for sending “the fog”, the ice, the snow, the rain to our area rather than the tornados. We were spared the wrath of a tornado, but when the reporter this a.m. on a popular am news program likened the devastation to God taking a brillo pad to the ground….I thought about that comparison and how God’s love shines brightly through our trials, but only if we look at things His way….weather will always be unpredictable, but God’s love will never ever be…. He loves us through all the storms…we face.