Lessons from the Darkness—Part 3—The Burden of Darkness—Anticipation and Joy

By Carol Woolum Roberts

One thing I have learned is that darkness can be a burden.

For me personally, my darkness was more of a gray.  It was like the lyrics of this James Taylor song that helped me “see the light” about the darkness I experienced:

Another Grey Morning

When I feel as though my love is sinking down
The sun doesn't want to shine
And when it feels like she won't face another day
Life is unkind
She's frozen in time

And here comes another grey morning
A not so good morning after all
She says "Well, what am I to do today
With too much time and so much sorrow"

She hears the baby waking up downstairs
She hears the foghorn calling out across the sound
Repetition in the morning air
Is just too much to bear
And no one seems to care

If another day goes creeping by empty and ashamed
Like an old unwanted memory that no one will claim
The clouds with their heads on the ground
She's gonna have to come down

She said "Move me, move me
I'm locked up inside"
Well, I didn't understand her
Though God knows I tried

I often listened to the words of this song since I got the JT album in junior high school.  But it wasn’t until I was a young mother that I related to the lyrics of this song, and realized I experienced this gray morning in my own life.

My darkness was gray.

I have observed others whose darkness is black.

A darkness so heavy and black that one wonders if you can ever crawl out from under it.

While we are in the grayness, or the blackness, we have an anticipation that the light will come.  That is what keeps us going. 

It may be just a glimmer at first.  But it is there.

The light is there.  And joy will be there as well.

A few days ago I was in a conversation with some wise and wonderful friends.  We got into a conversation about the dark times in our lives, and how we need to explore those times.  We need to see what they mean.

One woman said that we don’t know real joy unless we have known real sorrow.

The darkness is stolen away by the light.

The heaviness, the mourning, is stolen away by joy.

We can anticipate something better. 

We have to in order to live.

For me, the light is Jesus.

For me, that is how I came out of the grayness.

For me, that is how I came to know Joy.

Joy to the World

Joy to the World

The Lord is Come

Let Earth receive her King

Let Every Heart Prepare Him Room

And Heaven and Nature Sing, And Heaven and Nature Sing

And Heaven, and Heaven and Nature sing.

______________________________________________________________

What brings you light on your dark or gray days?

To leave a comment on our blog, you can use Disqus.  It is easy to sign up.  You can use Google, Facebook, Twitter or your email.  There is no cost.  Just put in your name and email address and create a password.  Then confirm your account with the email they send you.  Then you can use Disqus to comment on the blog.  We would love to hear your thoughts.