When the dark is darkest ...

... the light shines brightest. This was certainly the case about 5 this morning. The moon was nearly full and the sky was crystal clear. (Which made for temps slightly below zero, but that's why I love running outdoors in Minnesota in the winter.) On the parts of the run where there were street lights, the moon did not seem so magnificent, but along the paths that are usually dark this time of year, I even saw my shadow this morning. It felt almost unreal. As much as it was breathtaking to have the moon be so bright, it did not cause the daytime to come any sooner.

How often is that the case with life. When things appear to be their darkest and most challenging, those points of light stand out more clearly. Those points of light--be they friends, comforting words, familiar places, or passages of Scripture--tend to stand out in stark contrast to what seems like the darkness of a difficult time of life. Yet, none of us is the first one to walk through the dark times, uplifted by points of light.

The Psalmist said, "Even though I walk through the valley of death, God's strength and presence are a comfort." I notice that the Psalmist did not say that he was mystically transported out of the valley of the shadow of death (a dark place indeed), but that God was present in the darkness and gave the encouragement necessary to emerge from that dark valley. God's promise is not to remove us from the dark places of life, but that He will not leave us alone in those dark places.

On my backpacking trips the darkest, coldest part of the night is right before daybreak. On long runs the hardest, loneliest part of the run is that section just before turning around to head back to the start--to the familiar. Once morning breaks, or the run is completed, those dark, cold, lonely places seem much less daunting than they did in the midst. The key is to persevere until "morning."

Today, may the points of light in the darkness remind you to persevere--morning is coming when the darkness will fade and the light will reign.

Press On!
-Ken