Shadows Behind the Sunrise

6:28AM comes early, but welcomed. I live right on Lake Victoria -- the source of the Nile River. My room has a balcony and bay windows that allows the sunshine to stream into my yellow room for the twelve hours that we have daylight here. It's strange living on the equator. Every morning the sunrise wakes me up. Every morning, I'm so thankful for the sunshine.

When my days are filled with extreme poverty, illness, despair, and death, sometimes I wonder what's going on. Usually life here is not unlike life in America -- everyone has struggles but everyone survives with a smile -- but today was hard. My closest friends are struggling to find food and have succumbed to picking through the trash bins to find scrapes of leftovers. That hurt today.

Sometimes I think of the lyrics from the old Switchfoot song,

Oh Lord, why did You forsake me?

Oh Lord, don't be far away

Storm clouds gathering beside me

Please Lord, don't look the other way

The title of this song is The Shadow Proves the Sunshine. He doesn't look the other way; He doesn't forsake; and He's not far away. In the days when I question why so often, I'm reminded that God is still good.

"And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to His purpose." -- Romans 8:28

But what about my friends that don't love God? Is God punishing them? Does God not love them? I have days when I honestly question this. But a quiet voice calls me back to that oh so familiar verse,

"For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." -- John 3:!6

In this way, God loved the world. Not America. Not parts of Africa. But the world. His love is still there for them, and it's still there for me. Sin entered the world a long time ago, and hasn't left yet. Injustice is present because sin is present, but mercy and grace are also here because God has not left us.

"O LORD, how long shall I cry for help, and You will not hear? Or cry to you, "Violence!" and You will not save? Why do you make me see iniquity, and why do you idly look at wrong? Destruction and violence are before me, strife and contention arise." Habakkuk 1:2-3

The LORD's answer: "Look among the nations, and see; wonder and be astounded. For I am doing a work in your days that you would not believe if told."

So on days when you question all the wrong, remember that the shadow proves the sunshine. Without the knowledge of right, we'd have no understanding or ability to claim something as wrong. The wrong points us back to what we know is right -- Jesus. We have no other standard.

The theme of my time in Uganda has been, "The Lord knows. God cares. And He loves them more than I do." God knows your suffering. You have not gone unnoticed.

"Who is a God like You, pardoning iniquity and passing over transgression for the remnant of His inheritance? He does not retain His anger forever, because He delights in steadfast love. He will again have compassion on us; He will tread our iniquities underfoot. You will cast all our sins into the depths of the sea." -- Micah 7:18-19