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?
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