“A beautiful night”: it’s when we find out that the truest truths look backwards in this world. 🌒 To look at the dark— the moments of uncertainty and even suffering— as something beautiful, feels counterintuitive. It feels backwards and wrong, right?
It was the darkest moment of my life so far— a time of treading water in the cold, black creek of pain and loss. But it became one of the beautiful moments to remember, the first of several “beautiful nights”. It sounds backwards, I know, but it’s the truer truth.
When something sad or hard happens, we can get caught there— in the cold blackness of suffering. And when you’re living in it, it ain’t pretty. You’re not calling it “beautiful” in the midst of the uncertainty and sorrow. It’s unfair. It’s heartbreaking. It is not what we planned. It’s hard, scary and disorienting. And yet, I can tell you that in my soul, I have come to consider those moments to be deeply beautiful.
When Love himself comes swooping into the dark places the entire set shifts, the plot twists and everything turns backwards. I have watched it play out, and I can tell you that the Light can save you from treading water. Seeing that Light, feeling its warmth at a time of such coldness, undeniably turned those times into some of the most “beautiful nights” I’ve known.
I had it backwards before. Much of the world has it backwards. Of course suffering doesn’t feel good, but what it can do is turn us around to face the one we truly need. When there wasn’t anything left to reach for, that’s what it took to truly put me in the arms of a good and loving Father; a very present (and real) help in times of trouble.
We are free to reach for the beautiful Light in those dark nights, but it has to be our own choice. We gotta have the courage to choose the truer truth, even if it seems backwards.
There is a reason we read “do not be afraid” hundreds of times in the book of Truth. The TRUTH is: we aren’t meant to live a life swimming in the fear of suffering, but rather to embrace it when it comes. Embrace it with the one who oughta know— who suffered tremendously so we could reach for the Light in our own dark nights.
May you find the courage to believe in the truer truths. And may your darkest hour become your “beautiful night”.