I turned on the light switch and nothing happened.

It was 5 a.m., completely dark outside, and I was in the garage, getting ready to run on my treadmill before going to work.

When I saw that the lightbulb in the ceiling needed replacing, I made a terrible decision.

I’d run in the dark.

Ten minutes into my run, I found myself on the cement floor. When I’d tried to increase the speed on the control panel, I wobbled enough to get tossed off the treadmill.

I learned a painful lesson that day—a lesson that came with five years of lower back pain.

Don’t run in the dark.

It’s not hard to understand why we shouldn’t run in the dark. When we go where we shouldn’t, most of us expect to suffer the consequences of what goes bump in the night.

Things that Go Bump in the Day

But what about the bumps that come our way when we walk in the light?

What about the pain, loss, grief, illness, betrayal, injustice, tragedy, and death that no one escapes in this life?

We pretty much have three choices:

• We can decide that there is no God;
•  We can believe that God doesn’t love us all that much—at least not enough to keep us well and happy; or
• We can trust God, no matter the circumstances.

My choice is to run to the Father. I have come to know the God who loves me in the midst of life’s sorrows and through my pain. The God who will allow NOTHING to ever separate me from His love: 

Neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither our fears for today nor our worries about tomorrow—not even the powers of hell can separate us from God’s love. No power in the sky above or in the earth below—indeed, nothing in all creation will ever be able to separate us from the love of God that is revealed in Christ Jesus our Lord (Romans 8:38–39 NLT).

God’s Fierce Love

As I focus on God’s love revealed in Jesus, the One who died to free me, I am thunderstruck by a love so fierce, so passionate, so active, so powerful, so extravagant that just thinking about it absolutely wrecks me. Even though I may be in pain, I know that nothing, absolutely nothing, can ever harm my soul, no matter what the world throws at me or takes from me.

Yes, you and I presently face spiritual forces of evil, forces that seek to destroy. But when we embrace God as our Father, we come under His protective custody. He watches over us and works to bring good out of what is meant to harm us.

If you’ve ever seen a video of a mother grizzly defending her cub against a predator, now think of the Creator and Sustainer of life standing between you, His beloved, and the darkness that seeks to separate you from Him and His love.

Do your know the fierce love of the all-powerful Father who protects and defends your soul against everything that is wrong with this world? If not, come before Him, bringing your doubts, your tears, your pain. He is waiting.

Yes, we live in a messed-up world—and yes, we’ll die in a messed-up world—but we can do it all in the arms of the One who actively seeks our good in all things. He is always seeking, always protecting, always fighting against the darkness for us.