Two white, wooden rocking chairs move in rhythm on a crisp spring morning. The pinkish hues of dawn disappear as the sun climbs into the sky. My fingers clutch my husband, Leif’s knee. The back of my hand is marred by the wrinkles and sunspots I’ve long since given up trying to fight and learned to embrace them as the signs of a life well-lived.
My vision of the future may look wildly different than yours, but what do you do when circumstances, hardship, and trials blur your vision? Steal your hope?
The fiery trials I’ve faced have forced me to repaint the images of my future. Perhaps your challenges have, too.
Maybe life hasn’t turned out like you expected. Your future feels flimsy.
You poured yourself, your life, your soul into a company that let you go without the slightest consideration of what this would to do your life, your family, your future.
Perhaps you invested your retirement in a company that went belly up. An embezzlement left you high and dry.
Maybe you believed “I do” meant forever. Until life took an unsuspecting turn.
Or you picked out the name for the baby who never took its first breath.
Maybe you had Norman Rockwell images of your family together at the holidays laughing and celebrating. Instead the gathering is an unsavory blend of fake smiles, anger, unforgiveness.
Or perhaps there’s an empty seat, an empty bedroom, an empty bed of the one who is never coming back.
The future can start to feel flimsy. Our wills become wobbly. Our confidence becomes rickety.
Sometimes the future can look bleak, even completely black.
That’s when God whispers the promise:
“I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name” (Isaiah 45:3)
Whenever life doesn’t turn out like we expect, our illusions shatter. The niceties we tell ourselves burst. The false myths we believe are exposed.
This is a painful, horrendous process.
Yet the gift of darkness is that it forces us to squint for God.
And that’s when we find Him. The Ultimate Treasure. The Holy Beautiful One. And the joy that can only be found with Him.
Today, know that you are not alone. Even in this you can fight back with joy.
When your future feels flimsy, God wants to fortify your faith.
I stand beside you. With you. Committed to peer into the darkness until we discover the treasures God has for us.
In Fight Back With Joy, I share the treasures I’ve been finding in the dark. Those hidden glimpses of God that only those who know great darkness can see.
Fight Back With Joy is officially available for pre-order. To pre-order a copy of Fight Back With Joy for you and a friend, click here.
When you pre-order, you’ll be eligible to receive a whole bunch of free gifts. Find out more, here.
What “treasures of darkness” have you discovered during your most difficult times?
Expand your joy threshold by awakening to God’s fierce love for you in Margaret’s new book and Bible study, Fight Back With Joy: Regret Less. Celebrate More. Stare Down Your Greatest Fears. Click here to purchase your copy.
My treasure in the darkness: learning that I’d misunderstood God’s promises for many years. They aren’t saying if I have faith and do the right things, I’ll have a relatively trouble-free existence. They are telling me when troubles come, God is with me and I can go to him in my troubles.
Amen, Steve! A beautiful lesson I am still learning. Thanks for sharing.
Margaret. This post so resonates with me. And oh my, isn’t this absolutely stunning in beauty: “I will give you the treasures of darkness, riches stored in secret places, so that you may know that I am the Lord, the God of Israel, who summons you by name” (Isaiah 45:3) Our God whose love and wisdom and goodness work to shower us with the grace that is Him and from Him even in the darkest of places. He is the greatest of all and the most wondrous gift. I still forget these truths at times and God in His patience and love keeps teaching this oh-so-slow learner and grants me the “ah ha moments” over and over. And He’s teaching me to praise Him and celebrate Him in the dark — it’s not dark to Him! Talking to God about you and Leif.
“…celebrate Him in the dark- it’s not dark to Him!”
AMEN! What a beautiful reminder. I may need that plastered around my house as a reminder. Thanks, Debbie!
I have struggled for so long trying to express what you have just given me the words for….”treasures of darkness”…..my darkness was within a month time, I lost my aunt who was like a mother to me, my husband was diagnosed with cancer and my first grandson was born and passed away two hours later. We knew he had a heart defect but were told it was operable. My daughter had faith either God would heal him or use the doctors to heal him. Then when he was born they discovered that his heart defect was in fact incompatible with life. The pain I witnessed from my daughter and son in law, my other two adult children devastated at seeing their sister’s grief….and being so helpless to help anyone…and then my own agony holding my grandson, so perfect so beautiful….The darkest time of my life, I yelled at God, how dare HE? How could He create a life only to allow that life to be denied….what was the point? Ahhh but the treasure…was experiencing God in a totally new way….and knowing…..KNOWING beyond anything I had ever thought I knew before that HE IS FAITHFUL, HE IS LOVE, HE IS COMFORT, HE IS SOVEREIGN,HE IS PERFECT….now almost 4 years later….I am thankful to have gone through what we did. And heaven is SO PRECIOUS, because I know Landon is there and we will be reunited. “The hidden glimpses of God that only those that know great darkness can see.” EXACTLY!!
Marcy, praising God for revealing himself even in the darkest of circumstances. Praying for you and your family as you continue to navigate your grief.
My greatest treasure in my darkness was when I realized I would not know God by just believing IN Him…in faith and trust, I believed Him…His promises to me in His Word!
I love that, Mary!
After the first class of Fight Back with Joy, I have again felt God’s comfort. I finally gave up on my marriage. I still love my husband but, because I love him, I have to let go. He doesn’t believe in God, in Jesus, in life after death… Please pray that he will accept Christ as his Savior and Lord as soon as possible. Our daughter was baptized last year and is very joyfully active in her church but her oldest son and our son are very close to my husband. I fear for their eternal future, also. For sixteen years my husband and I have lived apart but have been “friends”, pretending with friends and family to still be husband and wife. I have not received financial support, but that would not be a problem if I had some encouragement, a tiny bit of what he gives everybody else. He has just been so cruel recently that I realize he is not my friend, either. I must be joyful to stay close to my son and daughter. I’m trying to fill out the joy bomb pages. Please pray that the Holy Spirit will help me see my bountiful blessings. I will pray for you.
My heart aches for you, Ann. Praying the Lord continues to comfort you and brings you joy in the midst of these trying circumstances. Huge hug!