Keep Looking

When I go outside to look at the night sky, my eyes are dilated by the lamplight in the house.  I look up at the sky and see a few stars, no Milky Way.  Most of what I see is darkness, but my experience tells me that there is light in the darkness.  I just have to be patient and keep looking into the darkness.  Soon, I begin to see all the stars appear in the clear sky from my 8000 foot altitude stage.

Prayer is the same type of experience.  What seems like darkness is not darkness.  It is simply letting go of the "lamplight" of my thinking, imagining mind.  Interior prayer calls for patience and trust.  Soon enough God will reveal more light in the darkness.  As the star-filled sky is so much more spectacular than the lamplight, so is God's interior light so much more spectacular than our mere mental prayers and devotions.