Learn to Navigate in the Dark

I’m only 4 weeks away from the biggest physical challenge I have ever taken on as I make final preparations to run all 268 miles of the Pennine Way in the Montane Summer Spine Race. The Spine is a continuous race meaning once the start gun fires the clock keeps ticking day and night until you cross the finish line in Kirk Yetholm, Scotland. As a result, this race involves a lot of night time running.

It’s only when you try to navigate at night that your realise how much we depend on our wider vision for direction. In the dead of night we lose our ability to quickly asses the terrain and identify waypoints that keep us on track. When the light fades, it is difficult to know which way to go. I have come a cropper a few times.

Being a disciple of Jesus brings light into our lives, but we should also expect to experience times of darkness. They manifest in different ways. There’s the “dark night of the soul”, where for no apparent reason God is distant for a season. Silent and unresponsive. Like Job we feel abandoned, out of favour, and left to fend for ourselves. There’s the darkness of depression, anxiety and burnout, where we simply can’t see wood for the trees. It’s disorientating and lonely. Then there’s the darkness that comes when we are blinded by the culture in which we live. We’re drawn in by the desires of the world, its ideologies and moralities which blind to God’s way and lead us on a different path. We’re the seed that falls among the thorns and the “worries of this life” (Mat 13.22) lead us astray like a dodgy GPX.

It’s no wonder Jesus said,

“Small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.” Mat 7:14.

Maybe you feel like you’re in some sort of spiritual darkness right now? Take heart! All is not lost...

The Ribblehead Viaduct illuminated by our head torches

As a runner there are a few things we can do to make night time navigation easier:

1. Learn the route. If we have already scoped out the course by daylight, we are better equipped for knowing each twist and turn in the dark.

2. Wear a head torch. It won’t allow you to see everything, but you’ll have confidence that the next step is the right one.

3. Follow someone else who knows the way!

Without at least one of these, there is a good chance we’re going to get hopelessly lost.

When we lose our spiritual bearings there is one bit of mandatory kit that achieves all three of the above. It’s the Word of God. Firstly, when we study the scriptures in the light of day, we’re recceing the road ahead, understanding the topography before us, preparing ourselves for the twists and turns, the valleys and mountaintops that we know we will later encounter in times of darkness. What God reveals to us in the light we can trust when darkness falls. Secondly, when we read the bible we’re equipping ourselves with a light which eliminates our path, often just encough for us to take small but purposeful steps of faith. Thirdly, when we open God’s word we are attaching ourselves to Jesus himself and running in his slipstream. By holding fast to the commands of God we are grabbing onto the coattails of the one who doesn’t just know the way, but is The Way.

If we’re going to travel far with Jesus it’s inevitable that we will need to navigate though times of darkness. if you're in that place right now, take heart! Charles Spurgeon said,

“I would sooner walk in the dark and hold hard to a promise of God, than to trust in the light of the brightest day that ever dawned.”

May God’s Word equip us for the journey. May his word be a lamp for your feet and a light on your path (Psalm 119:105).