LOST IN THE FOG

LOST IN THE FOG

By:  Mike Foil

Do you have a good sense of direction?  Many of us believe that we do.  How well does your “sense” work when you find yourself in an unfamiliar setting in the dark?  How about in a dense forest when there is a thick cloud cover?  Have you ever been lost in the fog?

There are times when we just lose our way.  No matter how hard we try, we seem unable to summon that old reliable “sense of direction” that has always been there.  The first time that happens to you there is almost a feeling of amazement.  You have trouble accepting that you are actually lost! 

I remember the first time I experienced a complete lack of awareness as to the directions.  When I believed I was driving north, I was going south.  In spite of the signs along the road telling me which way I was traveling, I had trouble believing them – “I have a good sense of direction and I know that I am going north.”  This was a venture into an unknown city, far from home.  My cousin and I decided to go see the sights of Washington D. C. for the first time, even though it was the middle of the night during a cold January trip back east.  Without a map, but with a “good sense of direction” we headed out from Quantico, VA to find the monuments.

It must be a similar situation when a pilot stops believing his instruments and relies upon his senses.  Whether it is a night flight or a trip during a storm, he convinces himself that the cluster of instruments covering the dashboard of the plane have all quit working.  He knows what it feels like to fly straight and level and in spite of the artificial horizon and his speed indicator telling him otherwise, he knows best.  If, by chance, there is a split second of consciousness of his error in judgment, just prior to slamming into the ground; I wonder what flashes across his mind.  My thought is that his first reaction would be denial – this cannot be happening, I felt I was right!

There is another vivid memory of being lost in the fog.  Being from Arizona, the opportunities to drive in a heavy fog had been few by the time I was in college.  During my first trip to see my brother in Santa Barbara, after leaving the Los Angeles area and heading along the coast I was baptized into a real “fog”.  Barely able to see the white lines beside by car and only faint, red tail lights for the car just ahead of me a few yards; the traffic flow slowed from around 70 mph to around 60 mph.  I did realize that I had to stay in the flow, could not slow down, could not pull over to the side, and could not take an exit (as they would be past me before I could see them).  It was dark and the fog was so thick that I had no idea where I was or where this string of cars was taking me.  I wondered to myself, what if the first car goes home and we all follow?

There is certainly a sense of helplessness when we find ourselves lost.  It has helped me to realize that even I can lose my way.  When we deny that we are vulnerable, we make ourselves more so and can become dangerous to those who rely on us.  If we recognize the reality that we can be led astray, can take a wrong turn, can get lost in the fog, and can be fooled by our own sense of right and wrong; it should help us be on guard to the potential so that we are better prepared when it happens. 

None of us have a built-in compass that will never fail us.  Each one of us is capable of getting lost.  That is why it is so important for each of us to learn to place trust and confidence in a reliable instrument of direction. 

Currently, America is lost.  We, as a whole, have abandoned our compasses.  We lack the leaders who have a good sense of direction.  We are surrounded by the “blind leading the blind”.  As America has rejected the God of the Bible and the road map of the Republic – the Constitution, we have become a nation with no moral or religious compass and a people with no set boundaries to guide us.  We are controlled by our own opinions and led astray by those who desire to use us for their own purposes.  Many of us have become “useful idiots” and pawns for those seeking more power and control over our lives. 

It is the law, whether God’s law or the Rule of Law, which establishes the healthy boundaries wherein we live in peace.  Without the law and these boundaries there is lawlessness and anarchy.  When we each establish a law unto ourselves, a civilized society ceases to exist.  Freedom from the law is not more freedom, but less.  Too many, today, believe that they have a right to do whatever they want.  When that happens; they, exercising their “rights”, infringe upon the “rights” you have chosen for yourself.  The “free love” of the 1960’s did not bring liberty, but resulted in a breakdown of morality and a lack of respect for authority.

America, maybe now more than at any time since the War Between the States, is lost in the fog.  We will not find our way until we find our compasses.  The compasses are not lost, we are.  The Bible and the Constitution sit on the shelves gathering dust while we have a front row seat for the decline of the nation which has been the World’s best hope of liberty.  We were a light on a hill and we did offer the American Dream to many who could only wonder what it felt like to be “free”.  But, for some reason, the vary guides which established us have been rejected and are now openly ridiculed.  God will not be mocked!  Liberty will not survive anarchy!  It appears that either we have been or are being turned over, by God, to our own evil devices.  We will reap His judgment as a nation and as a people.