You should have seen it.  It was really breathtaking how the fog was lifting and the trees were emerging as the  grayish-white gave way to pink in the morning sky. And maybe, just maybe, it was all the more breathtaking for me because I was so daggone out of breath anyway.

I was rushing through my morning and left my Bible sitting in the basket by my bed while I flitted and fluttered and rushed through my morning. I kissed loved ones good bye, bid them to have a good day, and tried to put on a face as I made my way out the door to a job that I love, but that involves a great deal of MORE flitting and fluttering and flying through moments and a great deal of mere ‘urgent’ busy work that pushes the most important to the wayside.

But the moments are precious and I don’t want to waste them in a world that demands so much (with a lot of hamster-wheel running futility, mind you).  Like a fog that covers and grays and dulls focus in a world where there is such a need for clarity, the busy-ness of life can make one moment just blend into another–unnoticed, lacking purpose, unremarkable.  And like a fog slowly overtaking a landscape, the days can be overtaken with a myriad of a million little things that cover and blend and fade, our lives can be dulled by the lack of direction and determination to make the moments count.

I used to be a bit of an idealist.  Used to.  Lots of loss and difficult experiences and circumstances later, I am just a believer in the Truth that I was created with Purpose, on purpose, by a Creator who has a plan.  A Perfect Plan.   Perfect.  And that plan may include  and allow a lot of things  which I never would have planned.  But let me tell you one thing, pain makes you remember that you’re alive. Difficulties make you pause and be deeply thankful for the joys, for sure. And bottom line, God uses the difficulties in life to sharpen, mold, and shape us.  Sharpen, mold, shape….define.

In 1 Corinthians 13:12, Paul says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.”  Like that beautiful landscape emerging from the fog that is being dispelled by the morning light, may we become increasingly aware of God’s incredible calling in our lives.  May that calling grant clarity of vision, purpose.

I love how when you look through an unfocused camera lens, as you twist and turn the lens, the image becomes clearer and clearer, and goes from being an unrecognizable mass of gray, to a sharp image with defined lines.  Focus makes all the difference.  I’m thinking that as we grow in our awareness and bathe our minds with the rich, all-transforming Word of God, that the fog lifts, what is unfocused becomes more defined, and what is dulled in our lives can be enlivened, enriched, and remarkable.  Not dull.  Remarkable. Not necessarily because we are remarkable, but because our part in God’s plan may very well be. But in order to play that part, to live that part, we need clarity of purpose, definition.

Purpose is not gray.  It is not dull. It is not like a fog that overtakes and consumes a landscape.  It is sharp, direct, clear.   Just like the word of God that is sharper than any two edged sword…purpose must be defined, focused, and a determined.   Not a  hazy gray, but a colorful clear.

So, in the morning, before the flitting and fluttering, I’m thinking the first part of the day needs to be that the Bible sitting in the basket by the bed is opened to help lift any lack of clarity or ‘fog’ in my spirit.  Yes, like that morning fog that slowly invades, may the things that would consume be overtaken by  the Light of Christ and the knowledge of His word.  I want to earnestly seek the One who knows the end of the story, and my little part in the here and now.  Focus makes all the difference.  Faith dispels the fog…or… at least chooses to walk through it knowing that in time, all will be revealed.  All. For again, like Paul says, “For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.” Fully.  Until then, praying that the  “flitting” and “fluttering” in a haze give way to a focused determination and appreciation of the moments in my days…my colorful, purposeful, full-of-unplanned-moments days.