By Kevin Mills
Imagine this: you’re a missionary living in a remote jungle village, relaxing as you comfortably read a book at night. Suddenly the power goes out, robbing you of your joy and instantly plunging your world into complete and utter darkness. Of course, there are no streetlights, so your surroundings have been entirely swallowed up by the blackest blackness you’ve ever known.
Disorientation sets in, and your ability to see clearly and regain your bearings has been reduced to exactly zero. In times like this, the darkness can almost feel like a physical force, threatening to smother you within the void as you try to make your way. Perhaps you begin to feel lost, alone, or even afraid.
Sometimes life can be like this. Things are going great just before sudden darkness descends. A loved one becomes sick. A relationship fractures. A job is lost. A dream shatters. The light, hope, and comfort you’ve been walking in gets snuffed out, leaving you fumbling about in confusion and despair, grasping for answers. How is this happening? Where do I go from here? Why would God ever allow this?
Jesus walked a similar, albeit even more difficult path. In the final hours of His crucifixion, He was thrust into the most profound darkness of His life: complete separation from the Father. The brilliant illumination of Their perfect communion winked out the instant He took on the weight of our sin. “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” He cried from the cross (Matthew 27:46). From His perspective, the Creator had turned His back on Him in the hour of His greatest suffering.
Sometimes all hope appears lost. We might feel as if God Himself has abandoned us in the dark night of the soul to fend for ourselves. We cry into the silence, suffocating in the sense that we are both forgotten and forsaken.
But your darkness is not The End. Likewise, we as believers know that Jesus’ sacrifice and death are not the end of His story. We know that Sunday is coming. There is hope because Jesus overcomes death and darkness, and someday we will live with Him forever.
Whatever you might be facing today, God’s plan for you is always good. Ask Him to renew your perspective, to reveal how He is working even in the silence and shadows.
We know that the Lord loves us with an everlasting love, and He showed us how much by sending His son to die for us. So if you’re in the dark at the moment, I pray that it’s only temporary, just as Jesus’ unbearable darkness was temporary.
Hold on, because Sunday is coming!