Comfortable in the Fog

The Serenity Prayer is one of my favorite tools we use in Celebrate Recovery. In fact, we say this prayer at the end of each large group meeting. My co-leader and I also use this prayer to close out our weekly Step Study group meeting. It goes like this…

“God, grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference. Living one day at a time, enjoying one moment at a time; accepting hardship as a pathway to peace; taking, as Jesus did, this sinful world as it is; not as I would have it; trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will; so that I may be reasonably happy in this life and supremely happy with You forever in the next.” In Jesus Name, Amen

I’d like to highlight a few phrases from this prayer…

·      Living one day at a time

·      Enjoying one moment at a time

·      Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will

Living one day at a time…

We humans have a tendency to either live in the past or in the future. Focusing on the past causes us to frequently use the phrase “If only.” If only he/she hadn’t cheated on me, if only I hadn’t met him/her, if only my dad/mom/spouse hadn’t been an alcoholic, if only we made more money...and the list goes on.  Or we live in the future, using phrases that begin with “when.” When I: get married, have a baby, graduate, get a better job, retire, or when ball season is over, I’ll…and so on.

Enjoying one moment at a time…

Wouldn’t it be great if we would simply live our life “enjoying one moment at a time?” Whenever I do live in the moment, I experience great joy! I’m a flexible and adaptable individual, but I have to admit I sure do love a checklist! Checking tasks off my lists exhilarates me! It makes me feel accomplished! This checklist mentality, while somewhat and sometimes productive, has been damaging to my ability to experience joy in the moment. It’s something I’m continuing to work on. But oh the joy, the pure happiness I enjoy and thrive on when I can get myself zoned in on this concept of “enjoying one moment at a time.”

Trusting that You will make all things right if I surrender to your will…

Here it is! The kicker! The morale and context of this blog…TRUSTING! Lack of trust is the root of all worry. We worry about things that haven’t happened yet. We worry over situations that are in the past and can’t be changed. We worry about the weather. We worry about what to wear, what to eat. We worry, worry, and worry some more; when what we really need to do is trust. Trust that God will work things out for us. Trust the He will make all things right…not as we ordered, but right. God isn’t an order taker…He is a straight path maker. His will, not ours is what we surrender to in Celebrate Recovery.

Recently, I led our closing prayer at a Celebrate Recovery TEAM meeting; I ended the prayer asking God to help us become more comfortable in the fog. A fellow team member commented on how she liked this phrase and I started thinking about how much I have used this phrase with others since starting my recovery journey. It’s a phrase that helped me in the early weeks of my journey.

I first read about the “fog” concept in one of my all-time favorite daily devotionals, “Jesus Calling” by Sarah Young. Her entry on November 16 shares how we look at the day ahead of us as a “twisted, complicated path…going off in all directions.” Yet, when we focus on Jesus, we look once again at the path ahead of us and “notice that a peaceful fog has settled over it, obscuring our view.”  When we learn to trust in God, we also learn to trust that he will guide us in the fog. As Sarah continues, “the fog is a protection” for us “calling us back into the present moment.”

It is so easy for us to either dwell on our past, or fantasize about our future. When in reality, today is all we have. We need the fog to keep us focused on the people in front of us in this very moment. We need the fog to keep us focused on doing the next right thing. We need the fog to keep us from getting out of bounds or thinking too far into the future.

The next time the path ahead of you seems overwhelming, ask God to send the fog to protect you. Or the next time you find yourself worrying about the fog, because you have no idea where He his leading you, ask God to give you an extra helping of trust. Remember, the story of Jesus and the demon-possessed boy in Mark 9? The father explains to Jesus how the spirit often throws his son into the fire or water, trying to kill him. In verse 22 the father pleads with Jesus, “Have mercy on us and help us if you can.” To which Jesus replies, “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus continues, “Anything is possible if a person believes.” The father instantly cries out in verse 24, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

I remember praying this prayer during my brief separation from my husband in November/December 2013. It was a hard time. I had no idea what was in store for us. Would we divorce? Would we reconcile? I was totally in the fog. I wasn’t exactly grateful for the fog during this time, but I have grown to have an enormous affection for the fog. Had I known how awesome my marriage would be in 2018, I quite honestly wouldn’t have believed it back in 2013. I couldn’t have handled my future reality at that moment in time. Instead, I focused on trusting that He would make all things right, as I surrendered to His will.

Life isn’t perfect and I no longer expect it to be, but it sure is good and I experience great joy most days…as long as I stay comfortable in the fog.