One evening in Puerto Rico, Lisa came in from sitting on the balcony with Ashlee.
We were eight floors above the ocean, with a beautiful oceanfront view. During the day, you could see the water stretching toward the horizon.
But at night, much of that view disappeared.
Even with moonlight, there were still shadows. Dark places. Areas where the eye simply could not make out what was there.
Lisa said something that stayed with me.
“Sometimes you hear best when you’re in the dark.”
She had been sitting outside listening.
The wind.
The surf.
The insects.
Even the sound of Ashlee breathing beside her.
None of those sounds suddenly appeared because the sun went down.
They had been there all along.
The darkness simply made her more aware of them.
Her words immediately took me back many years.
As a young man, I went on a lot of late-night horseback rides. Sometimes the moon was bright enough to give me a general idea of where I was going, but there were always shadows where my eyes could not clearly make out the trail.
There were times when I trusted the horse’s instincts more than my own eyesight.
And something else happened in the darkness.
I listened differently.
I could hear twigs snapping.
Leaves rustling as small animals moved through them.
Sounds that might have gone unnoticed in daylight suddenly got my attention.
The darkness did not mean I was on the wrong trail.
It simply meant I could not see as much of it.
I think we sometimes confuse those two things spiritually.
There are seasons when we cannot see where God is leading us.
We cannot see what He is doing.
We cannot see how the situation is going to work out.
And because we cannot see the road ahead, we begin to wonder whether we somehow missed God altogether.
But just because you cannot see where you are going does not mean you are on the wrong track.
And it does not mean you are alone.
Jesus said:
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” ~ John 10:27, NKJV ~
Notice what Jesus did not say.
He did not say His sheep would always see the entire path.
He said they would hear His voice.
There is a difference.
Sometimes we spend so much energy asking God to show us the road that we forget to listen for the One who is leading us down it.
“Lord, show me what happens next.”
“Show me how this is going to work.”
“Show me where this is going.”
“Show me what You are doing.”
And sometimes the answer does not come as more light.
Sometimes the answer comes as a voice in the darkness saying,
“Follow Me.”
David wrote:
“Indeed, the darkness shall not hide from You,
But the night shines as the day;
The darkness and the light are both alike to You.” ~ Psalm 139:12 ~
The darkness that limits my vision does not limit His.
My darkness is not God’s darkness.
I may not know what lies around the next bend.
He does.
I may not be able to see ten steps ahead.
He can see the entire journey.
Faith is not pretending the darkness is not real.
Faith is not claiming we know where everything is going.
Sometimes faith is simply saying:
“I cannot see the trail very clearly right now, but I know the voice of the One I am following.”
Maybe you have been asking God to turn the lights back on.
Maybe you have been asking Him to show you the whole road.
But perhaps this season is teaching you something else.
To listen.
To recognize His voice.
To trust His leading.
Because you do not always need to see the entire trail.
You need to know the voice of the One leading you.
And sometimes…
you hear the Master best in the dark.
