What Can You Find in the Darkness

It was late and bitterly cold.  I had forgotten to wear my big coat. As I walked home, I notice a young boy under the street light on his hands and knees searching frantically for something.  I asked him what was wrong.  He told me that he had lost a newly minted one dollar coin that had been given to him by his grandfather.  I offered to help him find it. After 30 minutes of searching with him, we had had no success in finding the lost coin. So I asked the boy to tell me exactly how he had lost the coin.  He told me that he had stayed over at his friend’s house for supper and knew that it was getting late.  He made a mad dash to get home quickly.  As he came to the intersection, he turned to come up this street and lost his balance.  That is when he lost his coin.  The boy pointed to the intersection about 25 yards away from him.  So I quizzed him.  “Are you telling me that you lost the coin at the corner…25 yards from here?”  The lad said, “Yes.”  I then asked him a crucial question, “Why are you searching for it here…25 yards away from the corner?”  The lad looked at me and said, “Because the light is better here.” 

I hope he found his coin.  I recommended that he one day attend the University of Georgia…I think he would be readily accepted there.

Sometimes you find the best things in life in the darkness.

I like the darkness when I want to go to sleep;I don’t like a night light in the same room with me.  I like the darkness when I go camping because we get to sit by the campfire and make smores and roast wieners.  I like the darkness if I am running from a bad guy who wishes me harm; it’s easier to hide in the darkness.  I like the darkness when I want to observe the stars and the planets.

Beyond that, I don’t like the darkness.  It is scarry.

We went to Kentucky recently and spent some time in Mammouth Cave.  We were several hundred feet below the surface. Our guide told us to stand still.  She then proceded to turn out the lights.  Now that was darkness.  I knew my hand was six inches in front of my face but I could not see one bit of my hand.

I pastored a church that had a cemetary beside it.  We lived next door.  One of the staff thought it would be a great idea to have balloons with helium for a Valentine Banquet.  The security alarm went off three times that night because of those balloons.  It was a dark walk, next to a dark cemetary, into a dark church. That was not fun. 

Being in the dark physically is not fun…but being in the dark spiritually is definitely not fun.  However,it seems that every believer that is used of God goes through dark times spiritually

• Abraham was told to leave home, but he was kept in the dark as he was not told where to go. 
• David was told he would be king, but he was kept in the dark because no one told him that it would be at least 13 years before it would happen. 
• Abraham and Sarah were told they were going to have a baby, but they were kept in the dark because no one told them that it would be 26 years later and well past their prime time to have children. 
• Joseph was told that his family would honor him, but he was not told that it would be 13+ years before it happened and that he would be sold into slavery, be falsely accused, and go to jail. 

What is a dark time? It is a time when you don’t understand what is happening; you can’t make sense of the situation; you can’t find your way; you are not sure that God is listening; and you don’t have a clue what to do.  It is not necessarily a time brought on by sin as seen in Isaiah 50:10 (NKJV) “Who among you fears the Lord?  Who obeys the voice of His Servant?  Who walks in darkness and has no light?  Let him trust in the name of the Lord and rely upon his God.”

Since we are told in scripture that God is light, we don’t usually think of the fact that God can be in the darkness.  1 Kings 8:12 (KJV)  Then spake Solomon, The Lord said that he would dwell in thick darkness.  Exodus 20:21 (NKJV)  So the people stood afar off, but Moses drew near the thick darkness where God was.

There are times that God brings us into those ‘dark nights of the soul’ so that He can get us to refocus.  It is not a time to complain and gripe.  Real faith comes out when we are in the dark with no way out, not a clue as to why, and not being able to understand any element of our circumstances, but we declare, “God, I don’t know what is going on, but I choose to trust You anyway.”

(Sorry about that comment about the University of Georgia. It was a test to see if you were really reading these newsletters. 🙂 )

We love yall!

Billy and Sheilah Daws