Lights in the Mist Around Us

What a cool misty, foggy night out as we drove back from the Y tonight after swim team practice. Wet, cold air wrapped around us as we walked to the van. Then it enveloped our vehicle as we drove. On longer stretches of the road that dipped into valleys, the fog was so thick that I had to slow way down to peer around me on the road, wondering what was ahead. Street lights were blurry, muted yellow in the deep mist.

Sipping a V8 at home now, my kids are readying for bed, the house is quiet. Soft music plays from the computer here, as I write. It’s funny how a melancholy song can make you feel melancholy, even when you are not.

I’ve been thinking since a Sunday School class discussion about how we as Jesus-followers are impacting the world. How are we impacting the world? In what ways are we changing our worlds? Are we bringing in a joy that supersedes circumstance? A peace that is not dependent on what is around me? A sense of purpose that is solid? Do I remember these things? Do I radiate it? Do I radiate Him–who is the source of that joy, sense of purpose and peace that lasts despite circumstances?

Sometimes it is easy for me to instead see the harried life of the instant, the urgent, and not pause and reflect back on what is eternal. Reflect back, and then reflect out the truth. Funny. That sounds a little bit like the mist I was driving in tonight.

Slowing down, pausing to breathe in the cool air, and reflect on what a cool God he is… I want to radiate him out of me more.