The Gospel: A Light For A Dark Road

As I type, two people that I love very much are going through heart wrenching circumstances. A dear friend is at her doctor's office having blood work done  as she is in the midst of a miscarriage and my very own father is waiting for the news confirming that he has cancer for the second time in 17 years. I am driven through with grief on many levels as two dear loved ones keenly feel loss. Loss of a child whose little heart was beating and body being knit together by the Creator God; loss of hopes and dreams and loss of the confidence of what tomorrow holds. Now we all think we know and function in the understanding that we don't ultimately know what the future holds, but we really tend to think we do. We make plans, we dream and hope about life down the road, we stress about the demands of next week. We go to sleep confident of what will happen tomorrow. While we must make plans and it's good to have dreams about the future, it isn't until the unexpected happens that our reality is shaped by the truth that we have no control over the future and that we don't know what tomorrow holds.

When we are filled with anxiety and worry about the coming day, week and future time, we are reminded in Matthew 6:34 to not worry about tomorrow for tomorrow has enough worry for itself, but we don't give it much thought when things are going fine. Yesterday in a sermon by a guest preacher at our church, this analogy was given {I am paraphrasing}:

At night in the city we don't necessarily notice the brightness or dimness of our vehicle's headlights because of all of the secondary sources of light, but in rural areas where there is complete darkness we quickly find out how bright or dim our headlights are.

 The same is true for our functional view of the Gospel. We don't really give much thought to our thoughts and beliefs about who God is when everything is going well. The secondary sources of light of the Gospel from our church, our close friends and little blips we read on social media help give light to our path and all seems well. When the darkness of excruciating circumstances and a trial filled path overtakes us, it is then that we either cling to the truth of who we know God to be and the truth that our deepest need has been met in the sacrifices of Jesus at the cross or we find ourselves swallowed up by the darkness with no light to cling to.

But we don't HAVE to wander in darkness even in the midst of dark trials. We can hold fast to the hope of the Gospel. Joe Thorn put's it this way in his book entitled, Note To Self:
"Jesus is enough. Do you believe that? Can you say, with the author of Hebrews, that you can be content with whatever you have because God said, "I will never leave you nor forsake you" {Heb. 13:5}? This is a promise made to us in Jesus. Jesus is enough, but that kind of satisfaction is only experienced when we understand our greatest needs to be redemption and restoration. God in Christ has reconciled us to himself, is renewing our minds, and promises to raise us from the dead, and we will dwell in righteousness and peace forever. If you have this, what more do you need?"

The Gospel allows us to say with faith, "I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know Who holds tomorrow and all of the future."

Today I am especially thankful to cling to the Gospel and I am thankful to my loved ones walking these newly dark roads are also clinging to the Gospel. The road is still dark, but the darkness doesn't swallow us up because the Gospel gives light to the path, allowing us to take the next step in faith that there will be enough light for tomorrows steps. The Gospel allows us to say with faith, "I don't know what tomorrow holds, but I know who holds tomorrow and all of the future."

Praying that the light of the Gospel is shining brightly in your life today whether you are on a dark road or one with lots of secondary light.