Bedrock

If we walk long enough, we will walk into some hard times.  We will walk into some darkness which is so black that there seems to be no light at all shining anywhere.  Not even the Eternal Light.  If we walk long enough, we will finally know what it is to know that there is nothing to know.  When we arrive in this place which seems so forsaken by the Holy One, we will not find much comfort in the platitudes which have sustained us through a life time of things which we thought spoke of the worst that could come.    

A lot of people live by such things as "God is good, all the time" and He is.  Others might say something about hanging onto the knot at the end of the rope.  And, of course, we do, at least as long as we can.  And then there is that one about "all things working for good"  which when delivered some times feels like being spat on.  The last resort in the platitude book always seems to be "you just got to have faith,"  which makes the one in darkness feel as if life has been lived without it.    When we walk in real darkness and struggle on the road of the very hard times, religious platitudes do not measure up.  They have no strengthening power.  They are empty.  But, then none of this is a surprise to those whose lives seemed to have disappeared in the suffering.  

When we walk far enough and struggle to stand with all our strength, we will come to understand that platitudes can never take the place of the bedrock.  The bedrock is trust.  Just trust in the One who brought us into being, Who has been sustaining us, and Who has a plan for whatever it is that is ahead.  Trust in God is the bedrock.  It is the kind of trust to which we cling whether the times are good or bad.  The darkness may deepen, but our hold on the One we trust is made more secure because of His hand holding tightly to ours.  Trust.  Bedrock. It is all we have.