Remember the Days of Darkness

I’m on a consulting project today, Thursday afternoon, just found out that the project will likely be canceled on Monday. I already have 38 hours booked this week, so in two more hours I’ll be on overtime. It seems like a waste to keep working like crazy toward our goals now. Maybe I should ease up and coast the rest of the week, or maybe I should keep pushing, hoping we’ll get more time and preparing to make a difference.

How quickly things have changed … priorities shifted … one minute pushing hard to achieve something, and the next it’s all but gone … vanished. Nothing. There’s a sudden void, an empty feeling, a darkness out in front of me. Like watching a movie when the power goes out. Back to reality. Time to think about my purpose, why I’m doing what I am doing.

Is Life like that? One day we’re active, looking forward to all kinds of things, filled with daily concerns … and then it’s over. Something unexpected happens and all goes dark, blank; a fatal car wreck, a stroke, heart attack, freak accident. Life’s done. Now what?

Solomon said, “Truly the light is sweet, and a pleasant thing it is for the eyes to behold the sun: but if a man live many years, and rejoice in them all; yet let him remember the days of darkness; for they shall be many. All that cometh is vanity.” (Ec 11:7-8)

The days of darkness shall be many. Life is as a vapor, appearing for a little time and then vanishing away. (Jas 4:14) Let not death be “when your fear comes.” (Pr 1:26-7) Many have said it before but I am reminded of it again … there’s a lot going on in the screen of my life, but when the power goes out, all that will be left is a memory. Then it’s God and me, and that’s all. Is this a pleasant feeling? An unpleasant one? Somehow both? Let me so live each moment that when the darkness comes I’ll welcome it with a smile.

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