Waiting for the Dawn

“It's like in the great stories Mr. Frodo, the ones that really mattered. Full of darkness and danger they were, and sometimes you didn't want to know the end because how could the end be happy? How could the world go back to the way it was when so much bad had happened? But in the end it's only a passing thing this shadow, even darkness must pass. A new day will come, and when the sun shines it'll shine out the clearer. ” – Samwise Gamgee, The Lord of the Rings, The Two Towers

I’ve been through enough storms in my lifetime – short and easy as it may have been so far – to know that what Sam says is true. 

I have found that on the edge of the darkest night, a glorious dawn is just around the corner.

It's like what Paul said in a letter to the church in Rome, “I consider that our present sufferings are not worth comparing with the glory that will be revealed in us.” (Romans 8:18).

Yeah, I know, he’s talking about the big picture; how the troubles that we face in this life will be nothing compared to the wonderful life we will have in the New Earth/Heaven.

But I think what he said is applicable to smaller things here and now.

After every hardship is something even better.

After painful work, there is sweet rest.

I believe this, I have seen this, experienced it - but...

It’s so hard to remember it when you’re going through a hard time again.

It’s hard to feel like these present sufferings are just the dark before another beautiful dawn when all you can see is blackness.

So much blackness that you almost forget what the dawn looks like.

But you've got to cling to it.

Not lose hope in it.

I’m not writing this for you, the reader, only.

I’m writing this for me.

The dawn is coming.

God is Faithful

and the sun never fails to rise and declare His faithfulness every morning.