Tuesday, September 6, 2011

Darkness Begins The Day

As I prepare breakfast in the darkness, I contemplate the cozy, deep sleep that avoids me like the white bit of egg shell being chased by my spoon. I have many things to contemplate about the rhythm of my life during this season and the profound effect the changes have made on every part of my being.

When the darkness of my diagnosis first shadowed my life I was bombarded with possibilities, then surgery and at the darkest point, chemotherapy. When I didn't think the night could go on, my hair decided it had had enough of my company. There has been plenty to contemplate during this season. Some thoughts were not welcome but came anyway. How do you refuse to think about hair when its hitting the floor like petals from a flower past it's prime?

Not only must the loss be contemplated, it demands a resolution. Nothing brings resolution to loss like the beginning of a bright, new day. But I have learned that new days don't begin bright.

Darkness begins the day.

My life over the past few months has been what most would call a season of darkness. Figuratively darkness can denote a cluelessness, loss of sight or direction. And a few times through this season I have felt like a child awoken away from home. With exhausted tears I would ask, "Where am I? How did I get here?"

Sleeping through the night makes it go by quickly. But when you toss and turn, awaking many times throughout the night, you wonder if night will ever end. As I watched the clock creep by, the next day introduced itself, black hour then blue. Finally deciding that rest would not return, I rose to meet the day. As I quietly made my way around the kitchen, I thought about the fact that it was dark when I went to bed and dark when I got up. But just because it was still dark didn't mean a new day hadn't begun.

You might still be in the dark but that doesn't mean you are stuck in the pattern of yesterday.

When we are enveloped by darkness that seems to go on forever, we will undoubtably find ourselves eager to see the daylight. It will come. There is no doubt. Whatever the darkness may be, it cannot last forever. Great things begin with darkness. Even God put the night first in the cycle of days.
Genesis 1:5

"God called the light "day," and the darkness he called "night." And there was evening, and there was morning--the first day."

So according to God, the moment darkness fell in your life, it was the beginning of something new. During the darkness, a shift has taken place. What was moving away from you yesterday has already begun it's return to you. The season has changed even if you cannot see it yet. It's all coming back to you. Bigger, brighter and better than ever! A new day has come!!

Genesis 8:22


“As long as the earth endures,

seedtime and harvest,

cold and heat,

summer and winter,

day and night

will never cease.”


4 comments:

  1. Awesome, Pastor Amie. If you only knew how relevant this word is to my life right now!! God bless you. This is a revelatory word that will affect many and change attitudes as well as lives. Love you!!

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  2. Thank you Pastor Amie. I miss you, you are in my thoughts and in my prayers.

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  3. You are a true encourager and inspiration. You have a way with words that lifts people right up out of their own darkness. Though I have never experienced cancer, I have experienced darkness in my life. I am thankful that you share your gift of writing and your trials so that others can find a hope. We love you dearly! Always praying for you and yours.

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  4. "As I quietly made my way around the kitchen, I thought about the fact that it was dark when I went to bed and dark when I got up. But just because it was still dark didn't mean a new day hadn't begun."

    Amen to that! I remember being in a season in my own life when I was battling a health issue and it seemed like the "night" was going on forever. One day my mom told me that the Lord spoke to her these words: "After this, then harvest." Within weeks, God brought my husband into my life and we got engaged very quickly. On April 26th, two years after my major surgery (April 17th, 2011) we were married and this past April on the 25th, the day after Easter, I gave birth to my beautiful daughter.

    God is so faithful and He is working out a far more exceeding weight of glory from the present light affliction. (2 Corin. 4:17) Even when we are not aware, He turns our evening into morning and our mourning into dancing. ;-)

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