Don’t Forget the Fog

Before we jump into this one, take a moment to read through Hebrews 12:1–3 below. Don’t skip over it. God might be trying to teach you something that I can’t.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.

Hebrews 12:1–3

Something I am not good at is letting the Bible speak for itself first, and only then adding my own thoughts. Please have read the passage for yourself before you read this. Now, here’s what I’ve been learning from Hebrews 12 lately.

I recently was able to take a trip to the northern part of Brazil and visit some global workers that our church has supported for a long time. The opportunity honestly just kind of fell into my lap, with my friend John asking me one day in March if I wanted to go to Brazil. Who turns down an opportunity to go to Brazil? Not me. So, in the middle of May, I took all my finals early, finished the last of my homework, and went to Brazil for ten days.

This wasn’t your stereotypical missions trip. This was the first trip of this kind Northside Christian Church has ever taken. This was what we call a Care Trip. We basically went down to reestablish a relationship with the workers down there, see what their lives were like, and make sure they were doing well. It would not be fair to the three of us that went if I said we 100% knew what we were doing on a trip like this, but I am so happy with how the trip turned out.

The first verse of Hebrews 12 talks all about the cloud of witnesses (of faith) that we Christians are surrounded by. I went into this trip wondering what kind of work this missionary family had been doing the last 24 years. When I was there, I understood a little more what this “great cloud” implied. Now, I’m completely aware of the biblical context of Hebrews 12, and that there are specific “witnesses” talked about in the chapter before. That said, I think we are still surrounded if we are open to seeing it.

The work that this family had been a part of in Brazil is incredible and inspiring. They were faithful, loving, and devoted to the people in their community and their churches. I was surrounded by Christ followers who were truly running the race marked out for them. I felt like I was literally surrounded by a “cloud of great witnesses”. It was like I left home and I had wondered into this fog made up of God’s presence and His people.

I have felt this way before. Probably first at different summer camps, then at a conference for high school or college students. I’d felt this way in my trips to Haiti in the past. I was able to feel how cloud-less it was during my time in a country where there is not a Church presence. Even just a short trip to the mountains or to hiking trails and I think I can see this “fog” again. That got me thinking…

Why is this fog so easy to feel or see outside of my normal life?

There are several answers to this, but only one that I think it actually true. (And I’m really working on seeing truth right now, which you can read about here) My first thought was that there aren’t any witnesses of the faith in my normal life, but that is absurd. Then I started thinking about how God must move more among the people in those places than in my everyday life, but I don’t think that is really true either.

Finally, I have landed on this: God moves and His people “cloud up” around us everywhere we go. We just get used to it or refuse to see it where our “normal” is.

Now, it is totally possible that we can find ourselves in a church with dead faith or in an unreached place with very little light of Christ shining, but that is not what I am describing here. I live almost exactly in the middle of the continental United States. People affectionately (and not so affectionately) refer to this middle land as the Bible Belt. While it is not really accurate to say that everyone is a Christ follower around here, it is accurate to say that there is a large number of “Christians” and a large number of churches.

I think that growing up around so many churches and nominal believers has blinded me. I don’t so easily see how God is moving in and among people around here because I don’t really want to see it. I’ve convinced myself that there is more wrong with the Church here than there is that is right with it. I’ve been training myself to only recognize what isn’t right rather than equally trying to see what is holy.

Don’t get me wrong here. I very much want myself and others to leave their immediate surroundings. I want to leave my culture and my comfort zone and witness what God is doing elsewhere because it is exciting and humbling! It puts out the blazing fire of my egocentric, ethnocentric view of how God’s Kingdom works. It makes me take a step back and see how the Holy Spirit can do what it wants, where it wants, when it wants, with or without my permission.

It also opens my eyes to better view what Jesus views. I begin to care about people in places I may never visit. I start to acknowledge that my local customs and stereotypes are just that: local. The injustices and outright sin that I never knew about or once chose to ignore can no longer go un-cared about. Leaving our “norms” is more than just adventure (although it is that), it is seeing more of humanity and gaining a better understanding of what we are a part of; both the good and the bad.

Back to the story: So, I began to look for this “fog” or “cloud of witnesses” where I am. And you know what? I started seeing it.

I’m currently interning at my home church. As I started looking for this “cloud of witnesses” there, I realized that I have grown up within a cloud of witnesses. The witnesses I have been able to see this week are numerous, but the one that has humbled and inspired me the most has been through a lady named Helen.

Helen has been the secretary at our church longer than I can remember, which means before or around 1996. Helen was one of my Sunday School teachers when I was a little kid, and she has played piano in the worship band basically forever. She is someone that has definitely invested in me and watched over me even though I was not always aware of it.

When I got baptized at 11 years old, she probably printed my baptism certificate for me. Every time my parents would have paid for my events or camps, Helen would have written the receipt and deposited the check. When I was raising money for my first trip out of the States, she kept my running balance and sent me updates on my funding. When I moved away to college, she let me apply late for a scholarship to help me and then reminds me every year to fill out the application again. She encouraged me and gave me hugs when I wasn’t feeling sure about moving away, and still does that each and every day that I’ve walked into the office the past 6 months.

Helen has been a great witness of faith to me. This week has been so cool to try and see those witnesses. It is like I finally woke up early one day to go outside and just be amazed by the fog hovering above the ground, proving that there is really water in the air that I can’t always see. Helen, and countless others, are the evidence of what I can’t always see in life. I trust that God is present and powerful partly because I get to see the faith of so many others.

Some of you reading may think that this merely mob psychology or some weird hysteria, and that is fine. I’m sure your friends and personally approved “mob” will support your line of thinking. It’s amazing how many “independent thinkers” end up saying the same things, going to the same places, buying into the same lifestyle and, yet, somehow still get to retain that they are total individuals unaffected by their communities. Now, I can’t lump everyone into that stereotype. That’s not really what I’m writing about anyway, but it is an important subject we should think through.

Get to the point, Garrett!

Okay. Here’s what I’m arriving at in my head: The great cloud of witnesses that the writer of Hebrews mentions exists wherever God’s Church is. If you live around or among His Church, then it is surrounding you as well. There may be some pollution or smog coming from your church or the church down the road, but we can’t just assume every cloud is a polluted haze. There are witnesses of faith all around us. We just need perspective.

What is cool is that we can be a part of that “witness fog”, too. The greatest witness we have is that of Christ, who “endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of God.” (vs. 2) Because of Him, we can “not grow weary and lose heart” (vs. 3) when we are overwhelmed.

The point is that we, as Christ followers, need to understand that we are never without example. Whatever you are going through, whatever you have gone through, we know those who have persevered before us.

I don’t know what your situation is. As I write this, my situations looks like a semi-lonely summer where I learn to see the great cloud of witnesses where I am, instead of wishing I was seeing it somewhere else. I’m having to learn to see who God is using and how great He is in my “normal” when a lot of my friends are experiencing huge challenges and change, and that has been difficult to wrap my head around so far. I’m getting there, though. Regardless of your situation, whether normal or challenging, remember the faith of those before us and those around us!

The best part is that I am starting to love seeing God in the norm. It makes me a better lover of people when I can appreciate where they are and how we are all being used. Helen helps me to see this. Others like Allen and Lori and Nathan are teaching me that, too. I’ve been living and growing surrounded by this faith fog and I forgot how to be in awe of it. I forgot how to see God at work all around me. And because of His grace, I am learning to see it again.

One day I may forget how to see it again, but for now God has reopened my eyes to these witnesses. I can see them in Scripture, I can see them in family, I can see them in friends. Hebrews 11:1 says, “Faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” These witnesses can instill confident hope and assured belief in us if we let them.

I think we should let them. Let’s be confident and assured. And then let’s witness to others.

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

— Hebrews 12:12–13

If we feel alone, or even superior, God is calling us to look at the fog around us. If we can filter out the smog of sin and the haze of hate, then we can see this faith fog again. If we get to that, then we find ourselves filled with a new sense of being; a sense of confident humility. And friends, that is a good place to be.

Don’t forget to see the cloud of witnesses around you. Sometimes it is good to get lost in the fog.