• Trusting God In The Dark

    By: Kristen L. McNulty

    Reprint rights available on request. Email the author at kristenmcnulty@hotmail.com.

    It's 11:00 on a Saturday night and I'm standing in the middle of a golf course. The darkness has dropped to the point where I can barely see what is in front of me. In fact, the only two things I can see is my golf ball, thanks to the glow-in-the-dark strip in it, and the pin at the end of the whole, which is also wrapped in glow-in-the-dark material. I'm unable to see bunkers or water hazards or the course boundaries. Yet, I'm expected to golf under these conditions- golf well at that.

    Not expecting much, I line up to take my first shot off of the tees. My eyes stay locked on the glowing ball and off goes my swing. To my great surprise, the ball flies long and straight towards the pin. By the end of the night, after playing one of the best golf games of my life, I came to the conclusion that I really like playing golf at night. Now to you this may not make much sense, but hear me out.

    One Fatal Flaw


    My golf game usually has one fatal flaw: I can never seem to keep my eyes on the ball. I'm often looking to avoid hazards, or nervously glancing back at the other players watching me, or subconsciously preparing myself to yell 'fore'. At night, all of these distractions were eliminated and I was only aware of two things: where the ball is now and where it must end up. Making my struggle to keep my eye on the ball a thing of the past.

    As I thought about this strange golfing phenomenon, I realized how relevant it is to my everyday life.

    Unseen Terrain, Unknown Future


    To be completely honest- many days my future looks as unseen as that golf course did at night. Even though I have an idea of where I would like to go in life, in truth, I don't know for sure how things are going to turn out. In fact, the only solid thing I know about my life is where I am today and where I'll be at the end of my days on earth. Strangely enough, those thoughts no longer scare me.

    One of the reasons why our lives are so exciting is because while we might have no idea where we're going: God does and all He asks us to do is follow Him and step by step He shows us which way to go. Proverbs 3:5-6:

    "Trust in the Lord with all your heart;
    do not depend on your own understanding.
    Seek his will in all you do,
    and he will show you which path to take."

    God Lights Our Way


    Our lives, like that golf course, might look pitch black to us, but even in the darkest times and seasons, God doesn't expect us to come up with our own spotlight to light the way. Instead we are called to follow the one who is the Light, who promises to guide us through. As Psalm 119 verse 105 tells us: "Your word is a lamp to guide my feet and a light for my path."

    When we follow Him and keep our eyes on Him alone, we can walk with assurance, knowing exactly where we will end up in the end: eternity in heaven with Him. Like that pin on the golf course illuminating the hole, heaven beacons to us from a distance and as a follower of Jesus, we are guaranteed to end up there. There's no guarantee that on the way we will stay clear of sand traps and hazards or that the course won't end earlier than we thought. But we do know that no matter what happens, we don't journey through this life on our own.

    "[Jesus said] and be sure of this: I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Matthew 28:20


    Trusting God With Tomorrow


    This way of living isn't always easy as it can be hard to trust God with tomorrow when you don't know what it will look like. But in many ways, this way of living is the only way we can be free of worry and filled with peace. How so? Well, by not seeing what the future holds it allows us the peace to enjoy today and gives us the opportunity that to trust that God knows what is best when it comes to tomorrow. Imagine what life would be like if we knew the struggles and trails that were coming our way? Our lives would be filled with anxiety and worry long before those problems ever arrived. And what fun would it be if we could see the good times laid out in front of us instead of just experiencing them in joy and surprise? Living in the unknown makes life that much more of an adventure and makes it that much more enjoyable. As Mike Clay once said: "We don't always need to know where we are going as long as we know whom we are following."

    Yes, we have no guarantee of what is coming tomorrow or in ten years from now. We don't know if we'll ever get married or avoid financial hardship or live to see age eighty, but that doesn't really matter. In the midst of the darkness of our futures we have all the light we need to see here and now, and in that thought alone we can be comforted. Closing with our promise from Jesus to us that we can hold onto.

    "Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, 'I am the light of the world. If you follow me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.'" John 8:12


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