Email 
Bookmark 
Print God's Faithfulness in Dark Times
by Andrea Groenewald, M.Div.Chat: Your Concerns Prayer Time
Every Monday @ 3pm EST
Easter is a time for extreme jubilation. It is Christ’s death and resurrection that proves Christ’s claim to be God and secures our salvation. What a time for celebration! At the same time I wonder if we focus too quickly on the resurrection without looking at the process that leads up to this climactic moment in history. The fact is that Christ died an excruciatingly painful death and was buried in a tomb for three days before victory was realised. A still dark tomb filled with coldness and death.
We all experience dark times in our lives where silence and uncertainty pervade. Recently I discovered a cyst in one of my breasts. Upon examination, my doctor also found a suspicious mole on my leg. With a family history of breast cancer and melanoma I was scheduled for a mammogram, ultrasound and surgery to remove the suspicious mole.
Around the same time my daughter incurred an eye injury. As we spoke to the intake worker at the hospital I could barely contain my tears for my daughter’s sake as she reported being able to see nothing out of the punctured eye. She was immediately slated for surgery. There was ongoing debate in the following days as to whether the surgery was completely successful. In the end Rachel was scheduled for a second surgery.
These experiences put me in a position of uncertainty. I couldn’t know the outcome of the events. At times I was worried. At times I felt afraid. At times sadness, pain and loss. These are the silent, cold and dark times of human experience.
It is in these times that I’m reminded of what is certain. I know for sure that God loves me. That God never leaves me. That God is caring and merciful. God is all-powerful and sovereign.
Life reminds us now again that it can be unpredictable and uncertain. We live, at times, in silence and darkness. And yet we live always with the certainty that God who raised Christ from the dead is with us in whatever situation we face, regardless of the outcome. It is in times of palpable darkness that Christ’s light shines brightest.
“Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith” (Hebrews 12:2a).
My tests all came back benign. Rachel’s eye has recovered quite well and we continue to pray for her vision in the injured eye to return to 20/20.
Andrea Groenewald has an honors BA in psychology from the University of Western Ontario in Canada, and an MDiv at Tyndale Seminary. A skilled corporate trainer, she speaks at retreats and conferences. She and her husband, Jeff, have one son and one daughter.
