You go whistling in the dark
Making light of it, making light of it
And I follow with my heart
Laughing all the way.
~ Susan Ashton
Where shall I go from Your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from Your presence? If I ascend to heaven, You are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, You are there! If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea, even there Your hand shall lead me, and Your right hand shall hold me. If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to You; the night is bright as the day, for darkness is as light with You.
~ King David, in Psalm 139
And the LORD, he it is that doth go before thee; he will be with thee, he will not fail thee, neither forsake thee: fear not, neither be dismayed.
~ Moses, in Deuteronomy 31
Oh beloved, it is true. There comes a thing to the warrior who has given themselves fully over to Him. And it is a thing that cannot be given if anything is held back from Him. It is as if, by keeping the crumbs of our former existence in our hands, He does not lay into them His plate, covered in a feast of the finest foods. He could, but the confusion that would come from our thoughts that we had filled our own plate would be dangerous to our progress in Him.
For in letting go of the final pieces of our own rights to worry and doubt and grumble and comfort ourselves, we find that we were never able to do any of this anyway. In fact all of our efforts and feeble resources only left us more worried and doubting and hungry than we were in the first place.
But once we let go… oh my! A burden that had followed us from our earliest moments of consciousness slips from our shoulders, and bangs in a dull thud on the ground behind us. At first, we think maybe we should reach back and pick it up. But upon looking at the wretched mass that had attached itself to our back, we wonder how (or why) we ever were able to carry it. It is a foul thing. Smelly and dark and bitter.
Our fear has fallen away.
Walk away from it beloved. Touch not the foul thing. Leave it to rot on the ground. Is this the thing that deceived us for so long? Don’t even go back to bury it, for it does not deserve the honor. And the author and builder of this burden will face the same end in the end. Just walk away and run towards the Light Who tore it off of you.
And suddenly, instead of feeling as though we are marching to our to our death in the dark, we find we are whistling a tune of triumph as we journey Home. And this we do, even as fiery darts bounce of the shield He has placed around us. And there is a very wonderful catch to this tune. People listen. And they join us in our march.
Beloved, are you afraid? Look to Him and watch the burden of this lie fall away. And once it does, don’t look back. Just whistle the tune of the new song He has put in your heart, and run towards Home.
See you There! It is going to be a very good Day!
