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Monday, August 24 - Devotional from Pastor John

August 24, 2020 by Rev. John Hartman

“Faith in the Fog”

It was great to be back outside for worship at 8:00 am yesterday. I was a little nervous making the early morning ride to church from Kirkwood, because it was so foggy and hard to see very far in front of me when I was driving. And even though it didn’t rain this week, and we were able to remain outside at 8:00, it was still foggy throughout most of the worship service.

My guess is that most of us feel like we have been in a fog for the past several months. An invisible intruder name COVID-19 broke into our personal space, attacked our health, our economy, our businesses, our travel, our schools, our churches, -- our way of life, and we have been struggling ever since to get our bearings and find hope in the midst of this fog. It has even caused divisions among families and friends, because of the varying opinions on how we should be dealing with this pandemic.

Psalm 130:1 sums up the feelings of many by saying, “Out of the depths, I cry to you.” In other words, the psalmist looks up to God and says, “God, I’m hurting! And if not for you, I’m not going to make it.” And yet, just when we think that we are in some kind of Twilight Zone perpetual fog, we move into the hopefulness and waiting of God’s future. Psalm 130:6 says, “We hope and we wait more than those who watch for the morning.”

Friends, through the dark nights of our souls, we wait and hope for God’s sunrise. If you have a toothache, you call the dentist. If your washing machine breaks down, you call a repairman. If your faucet is dripping, you call a plumber. We always know what to do if something occurs to us physically. But, if we have a broken heart, an oppressed spirit, we are paralyzed by fear, or we are just floundering around in the fog, God is the furthest thing from our minds. I am reminded of a poem that goes, “We mutter and sputter, we fume and we spurt; we mumble and grumble, our feelings get hurt; we can’t understand things, our vision grows dim, when all that we have is communion with Him!”

May God give you hope in the midst of the fog, so that even when the fog seems thick and unending, God’s power and presence will be with you and give you the sunrise of a brand new day.