I sat at the breakfast table yesterday morning noticing the clouds outside.  My mind goes back to Wednesday night; another night that I found myself feeling shadowed.  Often a quick look at Facebook and a phone call or text from a friend and  bad news piles on.

I see a sweet picture of one of my old students who would be twenty now; my pen pal for years. She went to be with Jesus on mine and Jason's anniversary this June.

I find out an old acquaintance has a brain tumor.

Back in Trinity, our home before here, there are fires in two subdivisions.  Homes have been lost.

Loved ones have been lost recently. There was another school shooting in Maryland on the first day of school. -There's Hurricane Isaac and more storms stirring in the Atlantic.  I read an article in the news where a five-year old's body was found in the garbage.

Darkness.

I remember as a child being deathly afraid of the dark.  I remember begging my sister to let me sleep in her room.  I won't tell you what age I was when I stopped using a nightlight.

The thing about darkness is the reminder that we aren't in control. Sometimes a shadow of the past follows from behind. In darkness we can't see what's in front of us.  And we know some of the dreadful things that are around us.  I remember hearing coyotes outside when I was young. As I grew older stories of home invasions crowded my mind at night.

Somehow light always assured me that things were ok even with darkness around me.

Sometimes darkness gnaws on us and sometimes it swallows us whole.

Joseph was in a cistern, Daniel in a den. Jonah found himself in the dark belly of a whale, but he didn't stay there.  Paul and Silas were in a cold prison cell.  The Bible tells us that it was around midnight when they were rescued. As they were released, I love it that the jailer (figuratively threw his hands up and) called out for lights.

How better to know we need rescue than to find ourselves helpless in the dark; how better to know we need Light.

More encouraging words have not been spoken...

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

 I will turn the darkness into light before them

and make the rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do;

 I will not forsake them.

Isaiah 42:16

Dreaded darkness.  It's a part of this temporary life we live in the flesh.  Thankfully the Lord, who is wrapped in light, is our deliverance from darkness.  He is our Light.

And remember there are friends and even strangers who are cowering under life's dark storm clouds, those who are paralyzed in the dark,

Pray for them.

Pray with them.

Hug them.

Carry the Lord's lamp and shine.