Seeing Through the Fog, written by a former pastor diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s (ALS) disease fall of 2000, relates how he lives with and finds hope while he suffers from a terminal illness. It’s an illness with no known cause or cure, a disease that gradually destroys all nerves and muscles, known to cause paralysis and death.
Ed uses the analogy of thick fog to describe what it feels like to live with Lou Gehrig’s disease, where he no longer can control his body, instead, the disease, like a thick fog controls all of his movements.
Yet, the book isn’t about disease, it’s about hope. Hope that doesn’t ignore, go around or dismiss the hopeless circumstances Ed lives with. That sense of hope fuels his strength to continue living in spite of the catastrophic challenges of Lou Gehrig’s disease.
Readers learn how he found hope and learned to give thanks during the “darkest times” as his body slowly, inexorably continued to deteriorate. While, at the same time, he recognized everyone struggles with something, his struggle just happened to be terminal while others fought with finite things such as divorce, depression or loss.
However, it was in the struggle he learned there are no “easy answers…no Bible verse or prayer…” that would make it all go away. He also realized he didn’t fear death, but he was “concerned about the process of getting there.” (pg. 16)
Chapters on worry, fear, healing, forgiveness, relationships, deciding to be a “pastor no more,” and others are written with forthright vulnerability. There is something for everyone within the pages of this small book with such a big message, especially anyone who suffers, lives with terminal illness or struggles with deep loss.
Joni Eareckson Tada wrote the Foreword to the book and said, “I need to see others…who put God to the test and find the grace of God is sufficient.” She found Ed’s book “powerful,” his message profound, his story an illustration that “hope is rock-solid and real, unshakeable, immovable, and most of all eternal.”
If you need hope, a new appreciation for life and circumstances, Seeing Through the Fog offers that and more. Ed demonstrates the power of personal perspective determined by choices we make each and every day. His life is a continual struggle yet he thanks God for each new day because his “life isn’t over yet.”
‘Seeing Through the Fog: Hope When Your World Falls Apart’ by Ed Dobson, David C. Cook, 2012, 176 Pages, Hardcover, 978-0781405553, $17.99
Back Cover Copy:
~~An Invitation to hope~~
More than ten years ago, doctors diagnosed Pastor Ed Dobson with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) and gave him two to five years to live. Ed’s journey since then has been one of thanking God for each new day—and remembering that life isn’t over yet.
Ed has spent most of his life preaching sermons, but this book is not a series of sermons,. He has spent more than ten years with a debilitating illness, but this book is not a treatise on grief. He has found deep joy in the midst of sorrow, but this book is not about simply looking on the bright side.
In Seeing through the Fog, Ed offers wisdom for anyone going through painful circumstances. He knows firsthand the journey of questions, discouragement, and loss. But more than anything, this book is about what happens when suffering allows us to see, perhaps for the first time, the beauty of our lives. This is a book of hope.
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