Ever Feel Like You Are Flying In The Fog?

By John Eiselt

John Eldridge writes about a terrifying flight he took with his family in Waking the Dead:

Photo by Tim Trad on Unsplash

Rain and mist smeared the windshield as we strained our eyes ahead, searching for a break in the clouds. There’s no radar in these planes; bush pilots fly VFR-–visual flight restrictions. If you can’t see where you’re going, well, then, mister, you can’t go there. And you can’t keep trying forever, either; the clock that’s running is the fuel gauge. Three more minutes, and we’ll have to turn back.

“We’ll give it one more pass.”

“Fairweather Mountain” is a total misnomer. With a name like that, don’t you picture some lovely place in Hawaii or maybe Costa Rica–-balmy breezes, gentle green slopes, the weather always, well, fair? These mountains explode 15,000 feet or more above sea level, right off the coast of southeastern Alaska, sheer cliffs and foreboding glaciers."

Some of the world’s worst weather hangs out here. The pilot was yelling above the drone of the engine, “They get their name cause you can only see ’em in fair weather.”

Fair weather? Around here, that means maybe twenty days a year–-if you’re lucky.

Twenty clear days a year–-that sounds about like my life. I think I see what’s really going on about that often. The rest of the time, it feels like fog, like the bathroom mirror after a hot shower.

John Eldridge describes precisely what life feels like most of the time for many of us. What is even more precarious is flying in the fog without realizing it.

What do we do when we find ourselves in such a season? Do we pray more, go to church more, take on a new religious practice, or is it something deeper?

This weekend at Five Oaks, we’re going to dive into a story of a victorious warrior in need of a different kind of victory. Come, let the fog part as we apply this story to our own lives in search of the clarity and the healing that we all desperately need. 

A Recipe for Discouragement, Disillusionment, and Despair

Have you ever watched someone who, in your opinion, is on the road to self-destructing? You’re pretty sure they’re going to hit a wall, but they seem unaware of their destination. 

Photo by Tom Pumford on Unsplash

Sometimes it’s the choices they’re making on the road to success. Other times it’s the choices they’re making in adversity. 

Sometimes my opinion is wrong. They are more resilient than I thought. Or there are more positives going on than what I can see. Sometimes they make course corrections along the way. 

Sometimes I’m right. 

I have no idea if I'm usually right or wrong, but I suspect it’s harder for me to see when I’m the one making self-defeating decisions. I’m not talking only about moral, right from wrong decisions but also about unwise and unhealthy decisions. 

1 Kings 19 records Elijah’s battle with deep discouragement, disillusionment, and despair.

The man who asked God to call down fire—and the fire came!—now asks God to take his life. He’s that discouraged.

We are not always the cause of our own emotional distress. Sometimes the cause can be traced to a medical condition. 

Years ago I knew a guy whose personality changed from cheery to perpetually angry after a head injury. No one could deny the injury was the cause. But for some reason, a lot of people can’t get their heads around other medical/physical causes for emotional struggles, and they seem to always assume there are moral or spiritual causes. 

Our emotional distress can have physical causes, and sometimes our circumstances or events are so traumatic that the only way out of deep discouragement is through a process of healing that takes time, lots of help, and tons of attention. 

When you look at Elijah, there is a certain inevitability to his deep discouragement. Many of us relate to the discouragement that follows great, but hard fought victories. 

At the same time, Elijah makes a series of decisions that would make any checklist of what to avoid if you want to be emotionally healthy. I can see his story being used as a case study on self-inflicted emotional turmoil in a psychology class. It reads like a recipe for discouragement.

So, this weekend we’ll look at that recipe and do some self-reflection. Maybe your small group or a good friend can offer you insight as outside observers.  

But we’ll also look at how God patiently and gently encourages Elijah and offers a renewed perspective and a road to healing his emotions. 

What God does for and says to Elijah is not just for him. It’s recorded in 1 Kings 19 for you and for me. 

We’ll all get a lot out of his story. But do you have a friend who could also use some encouragement from God? Invite them to a weekend service.