GREAT THINGS ENTERPRISE
CLAUDE BLACK
Mark 9:20
Darkest Before the Dawn
I remember a time when I had finished paying the monthly bills and balanced the account. As I walked through the living room, I caught the acrid smell of burning wire from the television. Something inside had overheated, and the set stopped working. Replacing the TV would disrupt the budget.
On another occasion, I had completed the doctoral comprehensive exams—four days of four-hour written tests. Four professors read the exams, and then I sat for the oral portion—four hours of “conversation.” Dr. Adams pressed me on a point of Early American History until I finally said, “Dr. Adams, I don’t know what you’re asking.” Dr. Shelby pressed me on a point about medieval serfdom that I couldn’t adequately explain. At the end of the four hours, the chairman told me to go to his office and wait while the committee members discussed the exam. I had worked eleven years for this moment, and now I sat waiting—sweating, nauseated, anxious, and uncertain. The minutes stretched like hours, though it was little more than half an hour. I listened for footsteps—anything to drive away the darkness. At last, the message came—I had passed.
On yet another occasion, Alice and I prepared for a trip. We packed the car, locked the house door, and walked toward it—when I noticed water dripping beneath it. The car had to go to the shop for an expensive repair, which delayed the trip.
Those interruptions in life have given rise to aphorisms such as: “It’s always darkest just before dawn,” “The brightest stars shine on the darkest night,” and “The tallest nail gets hammered down first.” In this same vein, Chinese Communist leader Chairman Mao wrote, “It’s always darkest just before it’s totally black.”
In Mark’s account of the child with an evil, mute spirit, Jesus called for the father to bring the boy to him. “And they brought him to him. And seeing him, the spirit immediately threw him into convulsions; and falling to the ground, he rolled about foaming at the mouth.” (Mark 9:20) Of all the lessons drawn from this story, one is that circumstances often worsen just before they improve.
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