Dark experiences are the lot for all of us, but the bring color to your life.

Living and Serving in Haiti can be dark.   Voodoo is a very real presence.   We wrestle not against flesh and blood but against a spiritual darkness that is pervasive and persistent.   If you are walking with Jesus, you will also find yourself in the battle.

Today I want to expose you to yet another great read.   Nancy Ortberg has written and insightful winner in her new book “Seeing in the Dark:  Finding God’s Light in the Most Unexpected Places.”

“Someone once said that faith is not a personal possession until you have suffered. That person understood that the very nature of faith requires the grit and courage to be in the dark so you can eventually see in the dark. Then faith becomes faith.”

In in and not of it.   Jesus put us in the middle of it and when He asked His Father if He wanted Him to remove us from it, the response was NO.

This life is not all black and white.   In the middle of black and white is a space filled with color.   We don’t get to experience all that God has designed if we choose to only live and walk in the light.   The light of the world Himself, crossed the line and lived among us!

“Stories are powerful, but stories from brokenness, stories that intersect with another’s pain – that, my friend, is life-changing stuff. This is gospel Good news. Great news, really. It is the same power that puts us in the fight for justice, for serving the poor and the marginalized in the name of Jesus. It’s what keeps us, in the face of overwhelming odds, going the other direction, using hope as the shield for the fight against human trafficking, poverty, and inequitable access to health care, education, and work.”

“In the garden of Gethsemane when Jesus was arrested, a period of darkness was beginning. “This is your hour – when darkness reigns” (Luke 22:53). And between that moment and the morning of the Resurrection, there was deep darkness. A darkness during which Jesus kept mostly still. There was no fight. He gave Herod “no answer” (Luke 23:9). While Peter sprang into action, chopping off an ear and vehemently denying he knew Jesus, Jesus was still. He went where he was led. He knew the darkness had started and he let it envelop him. Perhaps because he knew that through this darkness was the only way to the light.

“Our lives – yours and mine – have this rhythm of light and darkness. The light fades; then it brightens. The good and the bad, the easy and the difficult exist together, sometimes in the same space and other times with one overtaking the other. But still, the light is there, stronger even in its lesser forms than the darkness. That is the promise of Jesus, the Light of the World: he overcame every kind of darkness, even death, the final form of darkness.”

As Blackaby said so well, the very nature of darkness is that it will be dark.  The problem is NOT with the darkness.   The problem resides with those who have the Light.   Every time light comes into the presence of darkness, the LIGHT wins.  Jesus said, don’t hide your light under a basket.  Let it shine.  Be the Light.

BE THE CHURCH.   GO, into all the world and share the Good News (the LIGHT) with everyone, everywhere.