Leaving Dim for Dark

It must have been a cloudy day, otherwise we would have had sufficient light to walk through that section of the downstairs hallway. Or maybe it was early enough in the day that the east rising sun had not yet crested the roof line and we were on the west side of the building. In either case, with the florescent tubes dark above our heads and no solar assistance, we were literally, “In the dark.”

My companion and I were walking into a dark hallway and, to reach our destination, we had to traverse still further into the darkened space. We left the dimness for the darkness. Only once we had progressed through it could we arrive at the point where the lighting from the upward reaching stairway would help us see the surface to which we were applying our feet.

I led the way. I had walked this hall many times when it was well lit. My friend was new to it and so needed some reassurance that stepping further into the black space would yield a favorable result. So I coaxed him to advance on in. He was willing and passed from the comfort of light to the shadowless obscurity and through it to the sparsely lit surfaces which eventually gave in to a well lit corridor.

Are you as sure as I that God can lead us, that He can take us into and then through appointed places where we cannot detect the light, where we may only go when we are confident in His guidance? To reach and rejoice in the happy places which are separated by some distance in time or experience from the difficult hours, many a saint has travelled through darkness first. But The One who takes us there knows the territory and He knows us.

I think I can do the darkness if The Light is my personal guide. And you?

Tim Gramly
Education Pastor
SHBC
January 20, 2009