Recently, my wife Laura heard something on the radio. She shared it with me, and now I’d like to share it with you. 

It was about Chris Tomlin, the well-known singer of songs like How Great is our God, Glorious Day, and Whom Shall I Fear? 

When he was young, he got mononucleosis. As a result, he was sick and in bed for a long time. To pass the days, his dad bought him a guitar. That was the start of a journey that would eventually inspire millions. 

Let’s think back, however, to him lying in bed as a boy. How many prayers were said to get better right away? It surely must have seemed unfair that a boy was sick like this—and for so long. 

However, if that didn’t happen, he most likely would not have learned how to play guitar. I wonder how many people in dozens and dozens of countries have since been helped and uplifted by Tomlin’s songs. 

‘It’s as if he knows what I’m going through.’ 
‘He draws me closer to God.’ 
‘His songs gave me hope when I was in such a dark place.’

Today’s devotional is a simple reminder to trust God through the difficulty and darkness. My meaning is not that these things are good. However, God can bring good out of bad, even when we can’t see it at the time. Paul Scherer said that the joy of his faith is “trusting God in the presence of some great darkness and waiting for the light to break.”*

Trusting. Darkness. Waiting.

Proverbs 3:5 is among the most famous: “Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding.” That verse isn’t just about acknowledging that God is smarter than you are. It’s also about acknowledging that he is capable of bringing something good out of your situation even when you have no idea about how or when it will happen.

Let’s trust God in the presence of darkness, and wait for his light to break. Because it will.

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Notes:

-*Paul Scherer, For We Have This Treasure (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1944), 131.
-Bible quotes are from the ESV.