Lessons Learned In The Dark

[God said]   "I create the light and make the darkness.
I send good times and bad times.
    I, the Lord, am the one who does these things."

Isaiah 45:7 

 

During the recent storm, power was lost in many places, my office being among them.  However, force of habit led me to flip the light switch and then bump painfully into the corner of my desk.  The light did not come on when I flipped the switch because there was no power and I didn't have the power to make it work.  I considered yelling at the light switch, laying hands on the light switch, in the end (due to the mishap with the corner of the desk) I sat in the dark and prayed.

 

You see, when we try to do thing in our own power, we fail miserably.  How many times have we tried to "fake it till we make it"?  How many times have we tried to make our plans work, even if the purpose was to honor God?  How many times have we tried to live life without God's power?

 

When we realize that God is God and He is the one in control, then life becomes a little easier to take.  When the good times come, be grateful and ask God for those with whom you can share that with.  When the trials come, be grateful and ask God to teach you. 

 

When God's power is at work in our lives, others will notice because we reflect Him.

It Ain't Easy......Is It?

Hatred stirs up quarrels,
    but love makes up for all offenses.

Proverbs 10:12 

It's all around us every single day.  If you read, hear or watch the news, it's pounded into us with the force of a pile driver into our very way of thinking.  "It you disagree with someone, HATE them until THEY change!"  We are a society of lots of HATE groups each seeking their own interests while degrading the interests of others.  We have groups that HATE us so much that they believe theirs is the ONLY way to live. As a matter of fact, we seem to love to hate each other, yet we disguise it all as "love."

I have friends from a wide variety of different perspectives, yet even though we may disagree on many topics, love still holds us together.  You see, HATE is not the opposite of LOVE and LOVE is not the opposite of HATE.  Why?  Because they are both extremely powerful emotions!  The opposite of LOVE and HATE is this thing called APATHY (don't care).  As a matter of fact, the worst thing you can tell another human being is "I don't care."  Why?  Because you have just devalued them to the point of irrelevance. 

One of the first lessons I learned early in ministry is that not everyone is going to like me.  Some will even hate me, and try to run me off.  But God's love is stronger than any love and stronger than any hatred and even stronger than any apathy.  Darkness cannot hide even the smallest light, so too will love not be covered by hatred.

Remember what Jesus said when He was asked which commandment was the greatest? "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength. And the second is like it: 'You shall love your neighbor as you love yourself.'"  Watching the actions of some of these special interest groups....they don't like anyone (including themselves).

Shins Are For WHAT?

I praise you, Lord,
    for being my guide.
Even in the darkest night,
    your teachings fill my mind. 

I will always look to you,
    as you stand beside me
    and protect me from fear.

Psalm 16:7-8

I think I have told you before, but my mind is more of a crayon instead of a tack nowadays, that I have discovered why God gave us shins....to help us locate the corners of furniture in the dark.  I can't tell you how many times I have been in a darkened room and, sure enough, my shins are the ones that find everything there is to bang into.

It's no fun being in the dark.  And, quite honestly, I don't know how people live in the areas where night lasts for 6 months.  

I know I have told you about some of the darkest times of my life.  We all have such times when wonder if we will ever know happiness again; where we doubt we will ever be able to face others again; where we know our lives no longer have purpose...those are some of the darkest times.  Yet, even in the darkest times, God has a way of reminding us that He is with us.  Whether it is through a person, a quote, a book, a movie, a pet...God always has a way of reminding us.  And in those times, when we accept His offering of caring, it's like a light begins to glow in the darkness.  And eventually, that glow will grow until we see that our darkness was of our own making and the light of life really is within our grasp because God has brought us to it.