“Living a life of faith means never knowing where you are
being led.” – Oswald Chambers
There is a Scandinavian saying, “Faith is like a bird that
feels dawn breaking and sings while it is still dark.” This saying talks about
how the bird knows that dawn is breaking through and the darkness is coming to
end. This morning I was finding it difficult to sleep I lay in my bed and
watched as civil twilight welcomed in the dawn. As the dawn was approaching I
could hear the small birds singing their chorus to welcome the dawn. The birds
knew that the dawn was breaking through the darkness and the cold density of
night.
However, as much as the saying talks about the birds feeling
the dawn, I believe that the birds have it in built in them. The natural
chronology of the day is for the sun to rise and set and has not changed over
millennia. Their belief in the certainty of this chronology is what allows them
to sing their chorus. Sometimes we look at the dark and trying times in our
lives and we see only the darkness. We are engulfed by the now deepening
darkness of the situations we are in. There are so many times we have been in
these trying times, and the Lord has brought us through them to show us the
light again. Yet we only see the darkness. Scripture has many an example of the
Lord bringing people out of their dark and trying times and yet we still seem
to fail at having faith in the light that is coming.
In 2 Corinthians 4: 16-18 we see that the darkness and the
affliction is only momentary it is outweighed by the eternal weight of glory.
This weighty eternal glory is unseen as it is the reward we receive from God,
we are to strive for and be convicted by that which is unseen as Hebrews 11
tells us. Oswald Chambers says it is like not knowing where you are being led,
when we walk in the dark we walk with our arms in front of us and fear is in
our hearts as we try to walk.
This reminds me of when I was younger, I was sitting in the
living room watching a movie when the power went out, I remember the fear that I
felt, it was not until I heard my mother’s voice that I knew it was safe. Although
I knew that my mother was in the other room, I was still afraid. It was not
until I heard her voice and was reminded of how close she was that I realised
it was OK. The same can be said for us when we are going through trials,
through those dark times, we often forget that the Lord is with us. It is not
until we hear from the Lord or are reminded of what the Lord has done for us
that we feel fine.
Psalm 139 reminds us that even in the pits of the darkest
parts of the earth God is there, even in the darkest recesses of our mind He is
there, there is nowhere that God is not. This is a reassuring thing for us when
we think that we are alone in the dark and trying times. Next time we feel like
we are going through a hard time remember that God is with us through it all
and he will direct us through the darkness, where we will receive the weighty
eternal glory. Praise be to God for his ever present help.
