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Living in northern Indiana during college, I learned something.

The schools have a thing called “Fog Delay”. The fog is so thick, the school buses can’t maneuver the back roads to pick up the students. They are equipped with strong strobe lights, but I guess there’s only so much one can do to see through dense fog.

We were talking about this recently while watching golf on TV and seeing the San Francisco fog wrapping the city. Grief can be like a fog that wraps our mind up, trapping it from any attempts from the outside world.

Have you ever experienced this?

This grief fog keeps us trapped in indecision or fear of the future. It can keep us from praying, keeping our eyes seeing only our circumstances. How do we break through this fog and get our minds back?

The only answer I have is this: keep our eyes on the Creator of the fog and not on the fog itself.

Have you read about the life of George Mueller? He’s one of my favorite “spiritual heroes”! I am often struck by his powerful prayer for the needs he experienced in the orphanage he ran. How does one have that kind of faith in praying?

Another amazing story of his prayer life goes like this: George was on a ship heading to Quebec when they were locked up in fog with no way to continue. He went to the captain of the ship and asked to pray with him about getting George to Quebec on time. George prayed a simple prayer that God would clear the fog in five minutes and that he believed it was God’s will to be in Quebec on Saturday by whatever form of transportation God would provide. They finished praying, left the room, and found the fog had lifted. George was in Quebec on Saturday. This is what he said:

My eyes are not on the density of the fog but on the living God, who controls every circumstance.

George Mueller seems like this giant of faith that I could never be. He trusted God in ways that amaze me.

Could I ever be like that?

And then I remember this verse in James:

Elijah was a man with a nature like ours, and he prayed fervently that it might not rain, and for three years and six months it did not rain on the earth.
James 5:17 ESV

Elijah was a man like you and me…George Mueller was a man like you and me…

Have you felt fogged in when you pray? Sometimes I wonder if my prayers are leaving the room, as they feel like they are bouncing off the ceiling and just lying there on the floor. But what does the Bible tell us about prayer? We must always return to the truth and not just rely on those pesky feelings. “Likewise the Spirit helps us in our weakness. For we do not know what to pray for as we ought, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words.” Romans 8:26 ESV We have the Holy Spirit interpreting our prayers and making them what they should be. We can count on that!

When we are caught in a fog, let’s remember these words from George Mueller. It might help to write them on a 3×5 card and tape to the visor of our car or the mirror in the bathroom.

Father God, often in grief our minds feel wrapped in a fog and we want to think clearly again. Help us to persevere as we pray, knowing the Holy Spirit helps our prayers. Amen