When we use phrases like “light in the darkness, “beauty from ashes,” or “strength in weakness,” I don’t know about you, but what I hear is light, beauty, and strength. However, in navigating adulthood, I didn’t often take time to consider the darkness, ashes, and weakness in my own life. Maybe just hearing that repels you? I’d be right there with you.
At some point, I unknowingly held on to the belief that darkness was always in the past and light was all about the future. Not that bad things wouldn’t happen in the future or that I was dwelling in past darkness, but I definitely did not expect God to (intentionally) send me through valleys and have me work through fear in order to bring me to higher mountaintops and greater freedom.
My lowest moments have been full of fear, despair, and loneliness…but as I look back on those moments now, I can see clearly (through faith) that God never let me slip. God never withdrew His support. He never looked away. He let me call out to Him and question His motives and faithfulness, all the while proving who He is by His constant presence with me.
I’m overwhelmingly grateful for the way God has held me through so much. And here’s what I’m learning in the aftermath of many hard moments: “neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:38-39).
Nothing. No one. No circumstance or hardship or scheme of the enemy can change that God is in the business of bringing light, beauty, strength, and LIFE through it all.