“Thus, as it is always darkest just before the Day dawneth, so God useth to visite his servants with greatest afflictions, when he intendeth their speedy advancement.”1 These words penned by the English preacher, Thomas Fuller, have stayed the destabilized and encouraged the discouraged. They have imparted a new paradigm to hopeless souls as those individuals were awakened to an unrealized simplicity they immediately understood and embraced.
Perhaps, your thinking was transformed when you first heard the night is darkest just before the dawn. You were reassured that a better day was about to break forth on your dark night and dispel your woes. You were enlivened enough to continue your struggle a little longer. When that period of darkness ended (assuming it has), the duration from your mental revolution to the realization of your dawn became inconsequential. With the night behind you, it felt shorter than when it had enveloped you.
Disappointingly, the doctrine of darkest night-ends is somewhat tomfoolery. Dismissing moonlight and artificial light, the darkest part of the night is not just before dawn; it is the middle of night. Sunset occurs when the sun finally dips below the horizon, and sunrise when it crests. Twilight is from sunset to dusk and dawn to sunrise. It is the time when sunlight is present in the sky even though the sun is below the horizon. Civil twilight occurs when the sun is from just below the horizon to six degrees below it. Nautical twilight is longer for when the sun is up to twelve degrees below the horizon. Astronomical twilight is when the sun is as much as eighteen degrees below the horizon. The farther the sun is from the horizon, the less sunlight reaches the sky. Therefore, the darkest part of the night is when the sun is at its farthest point from the horizon at the middle of the night.
The message that an end to trouble is just ahead intoxicates many beleaguered minds. Well-meaning counselors and ministers preach this promising sermon to eager audiences. Charlatans also preach this message endearing followers to themselves to gain influence and wealth. But we are simply not promised an end to suffering in this life. Granted, life’s ebbs and flows offer seasons of rest for most of us. But some struggles for some people remain till death.
Perhaps, that time just before twilight seems darkest because the entire night has been endured. But the part of the night that must feel the darkest to many is that lengthy part after they were told the dawn is a moment away when, in fact, half of the night yet remained. To be handed a hope that sifts between one’s fingers like sand as the night crawls forward must shroud the mind with a darkness greater than to face the night alone.
Some are at the darkest part of their night, and it’s at the point furthest from dusk and dawn. The light they desire to see is not about to shine in a moment. Much of their long and dark night remains to be endured. A false hope that their suffering will end momentarily when, in fact, it will not end for some time only makes their night harder. They don’t need to be told it’s about to get better. They need to be shown a better Light—One that does not shine based on circumstance. While we’re in the world, we can succumb to the suffering of the night forgetting that we are the light of the world. Jesus said, “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (Joh. 8:12). When you have Jesus, you have the Light; and you will not walk in darkness even in the longest, darkest night. And because you have Jesus, He said, “Ye are the light of the world” (Ma. 5:14). When you understand that Jesus will be with you through your night, your circumstantial darkness cannot overwhelm you because your night is lighted by Him.
But so many don’t know the Light, and they don’t have the Light within them. And their night is long and dark. And I may do them more harm than good by telling them the night is almost over when they’ve just reached the middle of their suffering. The truth is that this night will pass eventually, but another night will come. And the answer is not to wait for the day, but the answer is to learn how to thrive in the night. They need the Light, and the best thing you or I can do for them is to join them in their darkness and shine the Light there.
Perhaps, saying a prayer for them and believing for their miracle isn’t all we should do. We can go by giving for many people and places, but everyone of us must give by going somewhere and to someone. There are people in the darkest part of their night who don’t need your words or money; they need your presence. They don’t need you to tell them things are going to get easier. They need you to be the Light in their night.
- A Pisgah-Sight of Palestine and the Confines Thereof, with the History of the Old and New Testament acted thereon. 1650. https://exhibits.stanford.edu/renaissance-exploration/catalog/fg622vf3455. p 229. ↩︎