The darkest corner....

He reveals deep and hidden things;
he knows what lies in darkness,
and light dwells with him.

Daniel 2:22.

Darkness...he knows.
Let's face it, we all have our own dark corners, out dark rooms, where our greatest struggles lie dormant, or is being wrestled with without any witnesses in sight (except for God though, who's watching from the sidelines).

We've all unfortunately witnessed this darkness consume some of our very own brothers and sisters, or where it is revealled in the light. Heck we see it in pastors, and fathers, and even mothers.

Becoming a leader is no joke, but a great risk.
You carry your darkness into a new level, and with each progression, the difficulties in revealing this darkness becomes everso troublesome.
We're all aware that we must fight this darkness on a day-2-day basis, but there is that added fear that the darkness may consume or show itself before the battle is done.

We've all been guilty of putting our expectations on others, unfarily to boot.
We see someone in service of the Lord, in the ministry who betrays him/herself and God to his/her darkness, only for him to be condemned by those who were not-so-long ago in awe of him/her.
They condemn him not just because of thier dissapointment in the person, but usually because they expected the person to carry thier expectations, to give them hope that "yes, it is possible".
But that person failing brings them back to the reality that they must face thier own "demon" to deal with, and it's not always easy to rid of.

Such is the curse of Adam upon us all.

Luckily for us, the grace of God, through Christ Jesus is more than suffecient ton either strengthen us against the battle, or see the good in us when no one else does.

The Lost Art Of Worshi.

A few days ago, I read an article on christianitytoday.com about psalms and prayer.

The article discussed the narrative arc of the book of Psalms, and how it began with lamentation, and ended in rejoice. How sometimes we aren't "in" prayer and simply going along with the flow due to burdens on our heart, yet we can't express this during worship as it somehow seems ungrateful.

I was so happy to read this.
So many people have told me how "joyful" and beautiful the prayers of Psalms, but honestly, half the time, all I could read was the lamentings and sorrows of David, then the other half was full of joy.

Why is it that all worship in Churches focus on just rejoice? Do we not suffer? Are all days painfree?
I'm guilty of sometimes going through the motions when my heart is not in it. We can rejoice alone or in fellowship, but why do we only lament by ourselves? In solitude? with no one else?

Even David lamented. It would be great to lament in fellowship, to know that I don't have to be in sorrow by myself and that we all suffer for the glory of God. Rather than going through the motions, we can all poor out our sorrows to God in fellowship, this in turn, would help us appreciate each other more and give even more glory to God in our worship, as we can all appreciate the challanges of life together, and understand what God is doing in all our lives.

Sometimes, it's good to go down to the velley together, so we can appreciate how high the mountain is together.