It worked!! As soon as I typed those words “mental fog” and foggy brain”, I sensed how to apply Sunday’s Scripture readings to my life and yours. In the First Reading, Abraham fell into a trance and was overwhelmed by a deep, terrifying darkness. In the Gospel story of the Transfiguration, the three apostles are frightened when a cloud envelops them.
When I baptize a child, I often think what it will be like for the parents as the years roll by and the child moves through his or her life. Does any parent have clarity as to what will happen to their children? Does any parent expect to be free of the dark or cloudy times as they guide and support their children? Look back over your own life as parents. Has it been all peaches and cream? I doubt itthere were plenty of dark or foggy times.
When I witness a marriage, I listen to the couple make their vows and think: “How easy it seems now.” How can you know what the person you marry is going to be like, let alone what you’ll be like after five, ten or twenty years of marriage? How can you know what trials, temptations, successes, failures, tragedies and unbelievable challenges will lie in wait for as you try to walk through life together. Foggy times and dark moments will always be there.
Perhaps the darkness becomes most intense when someone you dearly love dies. How can I go on? What will I do? Who will take care of me? Months of uncertainty and not-knowing will come.
Have you experienced these things? And here you are now, living witnesses of the fact that God is faithful to his covenant, that he does draw you out of darkness into light. Are you presently going through dark times or feel lost in a foggy and barren land? Then look back and rememberyou’ve been there before, and each time you’ve emerged into a new kind of life that you never expected. As it was then, so will it be now, for God is always faithful to his promises.
Take the words of Sunday’s Psalm to heart: “I believe that I shall see the bounty of the Lordin the land of the living. Wait for the Lord with courage; be stouthearted, and wait for the Lord.”
Gentle Hugs to you!
