He’s Shining Brightly

It sounds rather nice; it sounds spiritual. "When the light fades // when my sight fades // when I can’t see which way I am going // You’re shining brightly // when the light fades // til the night fades // so that I see which way I am going // You’re shining bright." Even I like it. I wrote it, too. But I didn’t really get it, until now.

Last week I started playing around with the stock market. After succeeding in my mission the first time through, I came up rather short on my second and third attempts. Oh, I made a profit on my sales, but since my goal was to re-purchase this volatile stock at a lower price, and since on both occasions the price continued to rise after I sold, I definitely have not succeeded in my mission.

I felt confused. I was afraid … afraid that the price would continue to rise, and I would miss out; afraid to buy back in at the higher price and then see the price fall again. If ever there was an occasion when the light had faded and my sight had faded and I couldn’t see which way I was going, this was it.

How appropriate, then, that I was practicing this particular song, getting prepped for recording it. I had been reading in Deuteronomy about how Israel was told to remember the power that God showed when He brought them—slaves—out of Egypt, because He would show that same power in defeating their enemies. It had helped me bring this situation into the proper perspective, too. I have seen the mighty hand of God, arranging all the details (many of them against my will and over my objection) that have set me free from all the things that were holding me back. Like Israel did, I have seen all that with my own eyes. That basic human distrust of God’s goodwill toward me, however—or perhaps this time I just forgot—left me wondering if He would do the same thing this time. Would He once more arrange all the details, just for my sake?

So I understand now. When everything else is foggy, He is shining brightly.

I’m not saying it isn’t nice to see things looking good, around me, but there will be times when they don’t look good. There will be times when I will appear to have failed. There will even be times when I truly make mistakes, when I completely goof up something. This may very well have been one of those times. But even now, He is shining brightly. Right now, He is all I need to see.

Right here, where things look (relatively) bad, where things look (relatively) dark, His power is still available, and it is still there for me to remember, to think about, to see in my mind’s eye.

So until I see His goodness in this situation with my physical eyes, He’s shining brightly.

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