Posted on Aug 18, 2009

BARRE, Vt. (BP)--On most mornings I start my day with a long walk. I live on a hill in Vermont overlooking a valley, and I often walk "up the mountain" and am rewarded with awesome views of God's creation.

I pray as I walk, talking to the Lord about whatever is going on in my life. I often ask God to help me share my faith with those around me. One day earlier this year I started my walk earlier than normal and the mist was still hanging in the valley below. But as I walked, the sun began to come out and the mist began to lift. At first it was only a few strings of mist that began to rise up and dissipate. But as the morning progressed, more and more mist began to burn off.

By the end of my four-mile journey the mist had completely disappeared and the sky had become bright and sunny. The valley below was completely transformed from a place of shrouded in mist to a place of sunshine and light.

In my talk with the Lord that day I realized that just as the sun slowly burned the mist away, the Son is also slowly burning the spiritual mist away from the valleys of Vermont where I have invested the last 15 years of my life. Spiritual enlightenment seldom happens all at once. It seems that in my own life and in the lives of the people I share my faith with, spiritual enlightenment comes slowly as we grasp one spiritual concept at a time. It is like a spiritual mist covering the mind which must slowly disappear until suddenly the fog is gone and the Son is burning so brightly that one wonders how we could have ever missed Him in the first place.

It is easy to be fooled into the thinking that the mist is so thick and pervasive that it will never go away. But bit by bit and tendril by tendril, the mist loses its battle with the sun. Likewise, the spiritual mist that blinds the eyes of so many in my beloved Vermont will eventually lose its battle with the Son. One day His light will transform the valleys of Vermont from places shrouded in the mist of spiritual confusion into places filled with the Light of the Gospel.

Would you join me in praying for the mist to rise and the Son to shine in the lives of America's least religious state?
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Terry Dorsett is director of the Green Mountain Baptist Association. For information, visit VermontBaptist.org.