Whether we see it or feel it or not, God is always with us
I sat down quietly by the river at the end of the day. The light was fading and the pheasants arguing about who was going to sleep where. Suddenly it came to me very clearly, almost as if spoken - I am the God of the night as well as of the day.
We like to think of God as the powerful force who can answer our prayers and turn the dark times in our lives into light, as he rises over us like the morning sun. And he does that - time and again. However, he is not a spiritual vending machine: we cannot decide how things should be, when, how and where. God knows the bigger picture: He knows what is happening to us, how we are feeling, what the outcome will be. When we go through difficulties, pain, suffering and heartache, we can learn that He walks through those times with us - carries us when necessary. The Bible tells us that God works all things together for good for those who love Him.
The night falls and then there are several hours of darkness. Those hours have purpose. We can use them to sleep or look at the stars; some people work night shifts. We all embrace that time in one way or another and God is with us through them. When the darkness falls on our lives, God does not go away then either. It is more difficult to embrace the difficult times in our lives than the periods when all is going well, but if we don't find God in them we miss out on what he has been trying to do in us. I recently heard a talk by Gill Gifford about treasures in the darkness, a phrase which encapsulates this nicely.
I was at the height of my career when I suddenly was struck with chronic fatigue syndrome. I went from being a head of department in a University and actively involved in a church to sleeping 22 hours a day and only waking up to eat when prompted by my wife. For several months I could do nothing about this and was at the mercy of the illness - and God. I was desperate to get better and pick my life up again where it had left off. With a lot of prayer and some help from the medical profession, I gradually recovered and am now well again. However, during that time I was completely changed. I decided not to go back to work, but embrace what God had been doing with me during that time. I am happier, healthier, and more fruitful than at any previous point in my life. That doesn't mean that I regret what I had done before: I had had a fulfilling career which in itself was fruitful. However, the time was right to move on, not hold onto what had been the 'good times' and walk into the future with God as the new person into which he had turned me.
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