Visitors in the Dark

Here is what Eugene Peterson writes on Psalm 30:   ‘ “The man who in the darkness took in the dark guest to sit by his fireside finds in the morning that she is transfigured and her name is Gladness.”  (Alexander Maclaren)   Hard experience offered to God results in the discovery that joy and blessing permeate life. ‘

I love that image.  We’ve had hard experience recently . . . Goodbyes, sorrow, loss, change, transition, sickness.  But instead of bemoaning it, let us offer it to God, and find that when the night is over the light of day reveals the trials to be truly transformed to joy.  As a team we’re barely recovered from the exhausting pull of goodbyes, we plunged ahead into the first week of the Pierces in charge of CSB, Jack and Julia began their studies there for the first time, the nutrition and Kwejuna projects that have been dampened by Ebola are now revving back up to full speed, and tomorrow a team of seven US visitors lands to see the way the Kingdom is working itself out in Bundibugyo.  All of that seems a bit stressful, but we are praying by faith to see Gladness.