We need to plunge into the darkness to see the light. This is a counterintuitive reflection based upon my own experience and the reading of Scripture.

To start, last week I encountered this passage in Isaiah 40:3-5, which says in the English Standard Version:

A voice cries: "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God. Every valley shall be lifted up, and every mountain and hill be made low; the uneven ground shall become level, and the rough places a plain. And the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together, for the mouth of the Lord has spoken."

We see in this portion of Scripture that it is in the wilderness (a metaphor for going through tests and trials in life, as was illustrated with the children of Israel in the desert for 40 years in the book of Exodus) where a highway for our God develops, where the crooked path is made straight, where valleys will be lifted up, with the result being that the glory of the Lord will be revealed.

This comports to my own experience, since it is in the wilderness, in times of severe testing and trials, that we often are desperate enough to admit our failures, turn away from faulty thinking, embrace a new paradigm and hear more clearly the voice of the Lord for the next steps in life.

Truly, it is in the wilderness where we make the crooked paths straight and where eventually every valley is lifted up; hence, we often need to go to the valley (emotional lows and times of testing, confusion and even ignorance of God's perfect will) before we are lifted up and can see clearly.

Truly, I believe God actually allows us to plunge into the darkness in order to face our true self as well as reality before we can see the light! read more