Light & Dark

There is a point along the tour, at Carlsbad Caverns, NM, where they turn off all of the lights on the path and you are left with between 15 and 25 other people, standing in pitch black darkness. The kind of dark that reminds you of inkwells. The kind of dark that reminds you of Bilbo Baggins' first encounter with Gollum in "The Hobbit." The kind of darkness where you could smack yourself in the face and never even see your hand. That's darkness.

There is also a point, upon waking up, when your eyes are still adjusting to being open and any sort of light makes you squint as though you're trying to read the Bible written on a grain of sand. One time, one of my roommates opened the blinds on me while I was attempting to wake up (we were about to embark on a roadtrip to Houston / Austin) and temporarily blinded me. I wasn't able to hold my eyes open for more than 30 seconds for what seemed like forever, but was more like 10 minutes. Even afterwards, I squinted until we were outside of Winters, TX. That's light.

Isn't it great to know that God is over both of those polar opposites?

In Psalm 74v.16, the Psalmist declares, "Yours is the day, yours also the night..."

This is such an encouragement to remember. In our seasons of great brightness, as well as darkness of the soul, God is sovereign and in control. When we feel that we, even as God's children, are at the lowest point we could come to, are fed up with waiting on God, and can't see how He could possibly work our situation for His glory (or if He's even there), we must remember that God is over the darkness. There is nothing that has escaped His Divine plan. When we feel that life as we know it could not get any better, our marriages and kids are doing incredible, the money is really coming in, and we are in the best seasons of spiritual growth, we must remember that God is over the light. It's not for our comfort, but for His glory.

This particular verse just reminds me of this truth: God is in control. He works all things for His glory in accordance with His will. The seasons that we go through are similar to those that everything else goes through... budding growth, periods of abundance, hardships, bleakness and then budding growth. In the midst of all these seasons, though, is the constant glow of the hope that we cling fast to... the fact that our Saviour is risen and will never leave us nor forsake us.

The Abominable Snowstorm

This past week, I had a thought roll through my head that hasn't been there in at least a year: "Today would be the perfect day to go to the park and fly a kite! I wonder where I could get one?" Lubbock's weather, Thursday through Saturday of last week, was absolutely beautiful. The tinge of spring was most definitely in the air, there was certainly no blowing dust (quite an anomaly this time of the year), and the sun was making everything a gilded tint of utopian beauty. 70's and on into the near 80's yesterday afternoon. And then? This morning, we wake up to near-blizzard conditions! So it is on the South Plains, the place where God patted Earth with His mighty hand and completely flattened it for some 250 miles! At least, that's what I like to tell people...

But seriously, a snowstorm following some of the most beautiful days we've seen in quite some time? You've got to be kidding me! Not that I don't like the snow (I love it) or the blustery cold and blasts of arctic air, not to mention how cute my bride looks all decked out and bundled up (especially with that baby bump!), but weather, please, make up your mind!

This reminded me, though, of something that I read in my study time last week. In Ezekiel (34v.26), we are reminded this: "I will cause the shower to come down in its season; there shall be showers of blessing."

God is sovereignly over the seasons, and knows the patterns of the weather we face, physically as well as within ourselves. I would venture to say that the majority of us feel that we are going to constantly be blessed with the things we want in life, and that it is God's obligation to give us these things, since we believe in Him and trust in Him. We like to think that we deserve to be blessed constantly with material things. What we often refuse to look at is that the blessings of God come in their season. Our material well-being and feeling good are not obligations of God's. We know that, just as He takes care of the birds of the air, that He's going to take care of His children; this is a promise. But it is not always going to be material. Where we are constantly blessed is in the spiritual realms, where there is no longer (nor every has been) any merit of our own accord. We are eternally blessed by the sweet, precious blood of Jesus Christ. 

As the snow continues to come down in blankets that simply don't stick from the sweeping winds, I'm reminded: God's blessings come in their season, not when I, a dumb and selfish man, want them to. They'll be here when they're supposed to be. Do I still worship, though, when the landscape is arid and dry; when it seems like there's nothing but drought in my life? We are promised that we will have showers of blessing, because our Father loves us; but will we still worship when those blessings aren't in season and the ground is choked?