Living in the dark

Have you ever noticed that when you're riding an intense roller coaster, watching a scary movie, or going through a haunted house and you get scared, you have a tendency to close your eyes so that you will no longer be able to see whatever it is that is scaring you? It's like closing your eyes takes away that scary thing and somehow calms you. But the thing that is scaring you is still there, you just can't see it anymore. 

Sometimes in life we do this when we are facing adversity, metaphorically speaking of course. We close our eyes as soon as we think something we fear is about to appear. We turn a blind eye to reality. We'd rather sit in darkness just so we don't have to deal with our fears. We want to keep the pretty picture of what once was in our heads. We don't want to see it because if we see it, that means we have to deal with it. Keeping your eyes closed isn't easy either because if you can't see, you can't move forward. But at the time staying in the same place seems much better than dealing with our problems, so we keep our eyes closed, wanting to see the light, but not truly wanting to embrace everything the light will bring; the blessings, but also the obstacles that have to be conquered and the lessons that have to be learned. 

For a while I stayed in the dark. My dreams were better than my reality, so I kept my eyes closed. I thought that eventually it would resolve itself, and the things that I feared would go away, but they didn't. Life doesn't work that way. 

So one day I opened my eyes. I finally saw the light of reality and like I knew, it wasn't the sunshine and rainbows that I wanted it to be, initially. Since I had been in the dark so long, there were a lot of things I had to deal with and a lot of obstacles I had to overcome. Although the light has it's trials, it also has the blessings God promised me. The joy, the peace, the elevation. 

While living with my eyes closed, I developed a relationship with God that I never knew existed. I finally learned how to fully rely on God, rather than myself. Although I was being stubborn and refusing to face reality, He never left me and He never gave up on me. He always provided and even though I couldn't see it at the time, He was strengthening me and growing me so that I could be prepared for everything that He wanted to give to me and I'm forever thankful for that. 

So open your eyes. Your reality is what you make it and once you deal with whatever it is that you're trying to avoid, life will become so much better. I'm not saying it will be easy, because there may be many tears. But growth is painful, so just embrace it because it is so worth it. 

Psalm 126:5-6 (NIV) "Those who sow with tears will reap with songs of joy. Those who go out weeping, carrying seed to sow, will return with songs of joy, carrying the sheaves with them."

Love, 

JayCherie