Who turned Off the Lights (Part1)

Since daylight savings time ended, I can't count how many times I have heard people say how much they don't like the fact that darkness seems to come sooner. I have to admit that I sometimes agree. Unfortunately darkness has had attached to it a seemingly unshakable negative stigma. Think about it if I said the word "darkness" what things immeditiately come to mind? Ironically though darkness serves its own strengthening processes. Why didn't God get rid of darkness totally when He created light? Probably because He knew we would never quiet down from our oh so important lives. Even nature replenishes itself at night. In the same way there are things in us that God uses darkness to replenish, remove or reverse.

The light went out in my hallway leaving the staircase in my home pitch black. The first night it happened other lights at the top of the staircase were also off so I decided to venture up the stairs to my room in darkness. I used the walls as a guide and was at the top of the staircase before I knew it. Would I have depended on the walls or railings in the light? I would have dashed up the stairs like second nature. It occurred to me that when I have a job, money or the relationships I take for granted, I sometimes trade in my God sensitivity-  the appreciation for the very presence of the power of God that protects me from day. I can see too much on my own, so I take most things for granted. But someone who is physically blind experiences a physical darkness in sight yet their hearing becomes so much sharper. 

When I pick up the phone, and no one is available on the other end, and I can't see touch or hear the solutions to my issues. I have no other choice but to trust Him. While going up the stairs in darkness it never occurred to me that the railing or the walls I held on to would cave in. I trusted that they were firm enough to hold  me up, but isn't God even more effective in my life? I am learning that my dark periods are the opportunities for me to tune in to Him even more. Instead of complaining about the darkness, or praying for it to be over with, I try to seek God's purpose for me in that season. It is definitely not always easy to think about the good in the darkness. At times I've used darkness as an excuse to cut up- do my own thing- DO ME.

When I was four years of age,my Mom wanted to punish me for something I did, so she put me in the her bathroom, turned of the light and closed the door. I decided to correct the situation for myself by turning the light back on. Did she think I was just going to sit in the dark? . She would open the door, and turn it off again. I turned it back on a couple of times until I got it. If I stopped doing it she would let me out sooner. Ever got your car stuck in mud? The more you try to rev the car out the more you got stuck. My favorite scripture is Romans 8:28 because it says that everything in my life works out for good. This meant that even the bad things- the darkness, worked for good, but how? It meant that I had to gain something from my darkness, I had to use it as a teachable moment instead of a chance to run my mouth.


Anonymous Writer