Faith in the Fog
The hike was hard. If I had been on my own, I probably would have turned back when I hit the knee-deep, unpacked drifts of snow. Or maybe when I had to park a mile away from the trailhead because the road was so gnarly.
But eventually, from the ice, snow, and slush...from a trail that spontaneously disappeared at a road and reappeared 200 yards south in the woods on the other side of the road...from the bitter cold and wind...from multiple false summits...We emerged straight into the clouds. I could see the snow-covered rocks that extended out, forming the summit. But they dissolved into nothingness. Looking left and looking right, it was the same thing. Snowy rocks. Nothingness. There were trees and trails and lakes down below, but I couldn’t see them. I just had to believe that they were there.
This was not an “Instagram-worthy” summit...but it was my favorite kind of summit.
You see, I’ve lost count of how many foggy summits I’ve hit. In Tennessee, North Carolina, Maine and Vermont...I’ve hiked through snow, rain, humidity and been rewarded by that same nothingness. Every time, I can’t help but feel immensely thankful for this thing called faith.
Standing at 4,000 feet, surrounded by fog...I couldn’t see what was beyond those snowy rocks, but I chose to believe something was there and it was worth the hike.
“Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.”
In life, we encounter unknowns. We can be pretty frustrated by those unknowns...by whatever it is waiting out there in the fog. However, we have an entire chapter of the Bible dedicated to people who held tightly to their faith while living out those unknowns.
Noah building a gigantic boat in his backyard.
Rahab welcoming spies into her home.
Soldiers marching around the walls of Jericho.
We can read through Hebrews 11 and feel inspired. This chapter reminds us how the story ends for these folks when everything seemed foggy.
But it’s important for us to pause and consider what happened before the story ended. Consider Noah...building a boat is no small feat. It doesn’t happen on the DL and you can’t complete a project like that over a weekend. So, there were days, weeks, months and years that went by when Noah was living in that fog. Knowing that God had promised more...but not being able to see it.
Consider what it was like when Rahab invited a couple of spies into her house. If her government caught them, she’d be dead. If these men decided to turn on her, she’d be dead. The situation could have gone south at any moment along the way...she was just existing in the midst of the fog! But she chose to rest there, trusting there was more to see!
And what about those soldiers, marching around and around a city? How silly they must have felt! Getting ready and gearing up just to march around walls...surely there was a moment in there when they felt like they couldn’t see past their own noses, past this task at hand. But they followed God’s instructions and saw walls fall down.
So often, we can’t see past the space right around us. We can get caught up in trying to see past the fog and figure out a way out of it. But maybe God just wants us to be in the fog for a little bit. Because it’s in that space that faith becomes a real thing...not just something we talk about.
And at the end of the fog, wherever and whenever that happens, we can rest assured God has something even better than what we had imagined!
These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised, since God had planned something better for us so that only together with us would they be made perfect. -Hebrews 11:39-40
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mary Elizabeth spent the past six years doing life in Nashville, TN…from grad school to working in a pie shop to running after school programs. But then she got a little antsy. She’s currently in a season of “wandering”…exploring the people, tastes and experiences that the country has to offer. As she set out on this journey her hope was to engage with people in more authentic ways and to hike everything possible. If you're curious about where she is and what she's up to, visit sunsetsstormclouds.home.blog.