By Troy Murphy

It is in the dark that we recognize the light. 

Isaiah 8:17 (The Voice) says: As for me, I will wait for the Eternal, even though He feels absent, even though He has hidden His face from the family of Jacob. I will put all hope in Him.

When I was young I went through a long season of being terrified of the dark. I would feel paralyzed with fear thinking about what was in the blackness that I could not see. Being young only increased the imagination and possibilities of evil that might exist in this realm of blackness.

Have you ever had that feeling? A blackness that is blinding?

When in rooms or places where this darkness existed I would frantically look for one thing….light. I would look for light in the crack of a door or even faint moonlight as my eyes would adjust and begin to see. I longed for light.

Have you ever longed for light?

Today's reading struck a deep cord with my spiritual journey. When I survey my 45 years of claiming Jesus as my Lord and savior I have had many seasons of dark. Seasons where I could not see life or God clearly. I knew in my mind he was there but felt like he had left me alone.

I was struck by the truth in Rick Warren’s statement, “The deepest level of worship is praising God in spite of pain, thanking God during trial, trusting him when tempted, surrendering while suffering, and loving him when he seems distant.”

What helped me make it through my season of fear in darkness? Believing in the light. Waiting and trusting that when the light comes all will be made visible. It brought clarity and peace.

I am not much different today than I was back then. In my seasons of spiritual darkness, I still long for the light. I still believe that when the light of God comes all will be made visible. Life, direction and feelings of God's presence will return. Without these seasons of dark I can forget about the power of the light and the hope and peace it brings.

We need the dark. We need those seasons where God allows us to experience a season without his light so we reclaim that longing and experience the hunger and thirst for his light in our lives.

St. John of the Cross wrote: 

God perceives the imperfections within us, and because of his love for us, urges us to grow up. His love is not content to leave us in our weakness, and for this reason he takes us into a dark night. He weans us from all of the pleasures by giving us dry times and inward darkness. In doing so he is able to take away all these vices and create virtues within us. Through the dark night pride becomes humility, greed becomes simplicity, wrath becomes contentment, luxury becomes peace, gluttony becomes strength. No soul will ever grow deep in the spiritual life unless God works passively in that soul by means of the Dark Night.

May we always long for the light.

Troy Murphy is the lead pastor at Green Bay Community Church