What Happens in the Dark

The lights go out and suddenly you find yourself groping around for a familiar piece of furniture to give a mental map of the territory that you must now blindly navigate. With the darkness come confusion, fear, frustration, vulnerability and dependence. You are no longer able to move about freely or to work at liberty; one goal now tends to consume your thoughts and that is to find a source of light.

Everyone goes through seasons of life when the lights go out. We can see this to be the case even in the lives of Biblical heroes. Joseph gets thrown into prison, Samson goes into captivity, David experiences betrayal by his own son, Hannah is cruelly persecuted by an arrogant family member, Ruth loses her husband, Esther faces racial prejudice, Moses deals with rebellious followers, Paul sits in the dungeon.. the list is long. Just like us, all these people had to deal with the pain and fear that come with emotional darkness, but each of them came out of the obscurity to see the light of day. It depends on us what happens in the darkness; we can give up, pout, lose our faith, become angry, take on a victim mentality, plot revenge or we can let the darkness be the background that accents the beauty of all that is light. What can happen in the dark? We can grow a deeper faith, develop new skills, learn new lessons, find new friends, chart a new course, take on a new determination, gain a deeper understanding, become more grateful, empathize more fully and gain a new appreciation for the light! One thing is for sure; whatever happens in our darkness will be reflected once the light returns. In fact, most of what is seen in the light is all about what happens in the dark.

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