If you want to make the color purple, you always mix red and blue. You can't get purple by mixing red with yellow because that will give you orange. It doesn't matter if you like yellow better than blue. Yellow with red will never make purple. You don't have to make purple, you can go with orange if you prefer. But if you want purple, there is only one way to get it.
If you want to look at the stars, you can only do so on a dark night. You can't see the stars when the sun is out. It doesn't matter if you prefer daytime to nighttime. Sunlight never produces a starlit sky. You don't have to look at the stars, you can wait until daytime if you prefer. But if you want to see the stars, there is only one way to do so.
Color and darkness are two great metaphors for life. Our lives are constantly flowing through waves of colorful splendor and joy, and treks through dark valleys of anguish and hurt. But in order to achieve the end result we have been created for and which is our ultimate purpose in life, we have to undergo both at different times and recognize and appreciate the beauty in them equally. Sometimes it's our own doing, but more often than not it's God speaking to us in subtle ways through situations and even through people. If we're not paying attention, those intricately woven plans that God has for us may seem more like nuisances than answered prayers. And so it's always up to us to decide -- free will in its finest hour. Do we want what we want or what God wants? Do we really want God to help us or do we want God to do it our way? It's always our choice in the end.
If we want to accomplish something, or get to any point in our lives, or have a certain type of life, we have to combine just the right elements to get there. There is no way around it. We can't decide to mix things up and not expect certain results. Two plus two is always four. You may not like it. But that's the way it is. Truth is not relative or dependent. It is self sufficient and doesn't need our permission for its existence. It is what it is. And it doesn't matter how we may try to manipulate or contort situations, they stand on their own merit.
You see, it doesn't matter how much we like something, or someone, or some place. It doesn't matter where we want to be at the moment, who we want to be with or what we want to be doing. Whatever we ultimately want from our lives has a necessary course of action and a specific combination of elements that will produce it. Often we can only get what we really want by making what are sometimes very difficult decisions that seem amiss at the time. But the hardest thing is often the right thing even if it feels like the wrong thing.
Feelings don't change facts. Although the steps we may have to take may seem harsh, abrupt or just simply out of our comfort zone, in the end, we can only get to a certain destination by choosing not only the right road but also the appropriate method of travel that will get us there. Sometimes we may have to sit in the dark and wait. The dark may feel uncertain. And the fear of the unknown journey ahead may be disconcerting. But that's okay because the darkest skies produce the brightest stars and our darkest moments may just be where we end up shining the most.
