“Instead of running west, just plunge into the darkness.”

A thought by Kyle Idleman from his book, Don't Give Up (p. 53). Baker Publishing Group. Kindle Edition. (Click on the book title to go to Amazon.com to buy the book.)

That’s not the way we usually handle difficult situations, is it?  We usually run in the opposite direction.

Kyle says, “Gerald Sittser, a professor at Whitworth College in Spokane, Washington, was with some members of his family when the minivan they were traveling in was hit by a drunk driver. In that accident, he lost three generations. He lost his mom. He lost his wife. He lost his young daughter.

“Gerald was somehow able to walk away uninjured, but it seemed like anything but a blessing. He wrote a book about what he went through entitled A Grace Disguised. Reflecting on a line from the poet Robert Frost, he tells us the path to blessing is not around but through. He puts it this way: ‘The quickest way for anyone to reach the sun and the light of day is not to run west, chasing after the setting sun, but to head east plunging into the darkness until one comes to the sunrise.’”

Kyle continues, “Instead of running west, just plunge into the darkness. That’s counterintuitive. If you even think about it, all your instincts rebel. We avoid desperation, simply hoping the situation clears itself up, waiting for the darkness to lighten. But what if the desperation is a grace disguised? What if fighting your way through the darkness is the path to blessing? The quickest way through the desperation may well be to embrace it. Plunge into it. Fight your way through the darkness.”

Later Kyle says, “God doesn’t want to leave you like you were before the addiction, or abuse, or affair, or relationship, or financial devastation, or diagnosis, or failure. He wants to bless you and introduce you to a whole new world of meaning and opportunity. But sometimes you have to fight through the night to get to the blessing.”

He continues, “If you have the courage to stop running and decide that you are going to fight through the darkness and not give up until you reach the other side, you will discover God’s power and presence. But you may also discover a reconciled relationship, a renewed purpose, or a new identity and hope for the future.”

And that can be a very good thing, can’t it?

Yes, yes!