On the Mountain God Provides: Dark Night Testimony

When I got struck in the head with a hockey stick at 18 years of age, causing a retinal detachment and eventual emergency surgery, I couldn't see a lot of good coming from that. No pun intended.

And when I lay in that hospital bed the night before surgery, with no parents, no siblings to comfort me, I felt totally alone.

Actually, worse than that. I felt God was there, but He wasn't for me—He was against me!

And why wouldn't He be? I had plenty of time to reflect on what my life was like. How I was doing everything in my own strength, trying to solve my own problems, making plans about my glorious future.

With a detached retina and no vision in one of my eyes, it was then I began to see how dark my life really was. And how shaky a foundation I was trying to build, trusting in myself.

It was then I started crying out to God for help:

"I don't want to go blind."

"I don't want to die."

"I definitely don't want to go to hell—the place I had once dreamed about, the place where there are no more second chances, no more tomorrows."

God broke me that night! He didn't come quickly to the rescue. He allowed me to cry out for help that whole night. It was horrible.

But on that hospital bed—on that dark mountain—God provided.