Sitting Patiently In the Dark

ALONG the road toward a goal, its realisation some time off, and it’s not just any old goal — our whole being might necessarily revolve around it — we sit and wait.  It’s not so much that God is teaching us to wait, but it is necessary to wait, and, in that, He’s teaching us to sit patiently in the dark, before all can be revealed… in His time and way.

Sitting in the dark,

Where patience runs thin,

And doubts swarm thick,

And the whereabouts of God,

This soul just cannot know.

Sitting in the dark,

It’s pitch black in here,

Where darkest are the shades,

And suspicions wistfully abound,

While hope fades to again see the glow.

Sitting in the dark,

How horrid to call this home,

Where uncertainties proliferate,

And silence of aloneness prowls,

The situations of mortals are definitely the foe.

Sitting in the dark,

Where there’s no light to hide,

And hiding would be a luxury,

Waiting to be found,

God’s blessing again to know.

***

Although the poem depicts the starkness of being in the dark, hopelessly vanquished by some perception of future as it’s seen in the present, it’s best to finish on the redeeming features of sitting patiently in the dark.

How are we to otherwise learn a variety of patience that is borne on a most disparaging darkness?  Being in the darkness, sitting without fear, patiently without fidgeting, is the only way to learn it.

If we can sit patiently in the dark, with no hope ascending, God’s Presence not descending, then, we can do anything.

© 2016 Steve Wickham.