My heart is heavy.

I came back from a great mission experience to the reality of brokenness and pain this week. One of our mission team members received news of his uncle’s brutal murder as soon as we returned to the States. The news reports continue to swirl regarding the murder of a minister in my fellowship…by his wife. Families I’m close to continue to deal with adversities and difficulties. I’ve been painfully reminded this week that we live in a fallen world.

As I read this afternoon, I found solace in the 139th Psalm. These ancient words serve as the conduit to the peace I so desperately need.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,
and the light about me be night,”
even the darkness is not dark to you;
the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you.
Psalm 139:11-12, ESV

I’m reminded today that there is no darkness with God. That is not to say there is no adversity or difficulty or pain with God. Jesus promised the world would treat His followers much the same way they treated Him. Belief in Christ hardly makes one impervious to affliction or strife. But Scripture teaches of the transforming nature of relationship with Him. Even in the darkest of hours, we have that which sustains us: hope. The Psalmist majestically praises the sovereignty of God, a God who consumes darkness with His luminous presence. We can deal with circumstances which might ordinarily cripple us for we hopefully anticipate a Kingdom devoid of rage and malice and corruption. At the risk of sounding trite, where there is darkness, He shines most brightly.

Turn our darkness to light,
Our sorrow to joy,
O Sovereign Lord.