Darkness Can Be Hopeful?

Oxford, England overnight

Our lives are full of dark times. Sometimes it feels like it goes on and on...Sometimes it makes you feel alone, but you are never alone. God understands the sadness, pain, tears, and trials. That brings me comfort because I know I am in good hands. A god who can relate and understand is a reachable god, and we have that.

These matters I think about don't seem tiny to me, but they are tiny to God. Not tiny in importance, but tiny in that He can handle it all. There's nothing too big to stump God. The plan is already rolling out, and He knows what is meant to happen next. But being in this "unknown" place is really a struggle at times. Being shrouded in darkness leaves me feeling uncertain.

Yet, it is also a hopeful time because I can look ahead and be thankful for the good that God is about to let happen. So, we are to count it all as joy. And the darkest time of night is soon interrupted by the light of a new day...

Hope, like love, is one of the very simple, primordial dispositions of the living person. In hope, man reaches 'with restless heart', with confidence and patient expectation, toward the bonum arduum futurum, toward the arduous 'not yet' of fulfillment, whether natural or supernatural. -Josef Pieper, On Hope

Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. -James 1.2-3