The Hiker

One day a man decides to go on a hike.  As the man is on his hike he falls into a hole, after he gets up he realizes that the whole he fell into is a cave.  After getting up the hiker dusts himself off and begins to try to find his way in this pitch black cave.  This guy has a flashlight in his hand but he refuses to use it, he wants to make it out on his own.  After tripping and falling over rocks the hiker finally makes his way out through a small hole injured and in pain.  What the hiker did not know is that if he would have used his flashlight; first of all he would have seen the easiest and safest way out second of all he would have realized that the cave he had fallen into was in fact a diamond mine. If he would have used his flashlight he would have seen the diamonds lining his path, but instead he barely made it out and he was injured.
So much of the time we are the hiker and the Lord is the flashlight.  We fall into darkness but refuse to use our flashlight (God).  We walk through dark times and struggles with God at our finger tips but refuse to use his light.  We can, sometimes, make it out of our dark times on our own, but we squeeze our way out injured and in pain.  When we turn to the Lord during hard times His light will show us the safest and most rewarding way out.  With his light we see the value of our journey, we realize that our dark and scary cave is really a diamond mine, and we God will show us were the diamonds are.  When we let the Lord guide us instead of relying on our own senses, we make it out of our dark and hard times healthy and better off then before.  When we turn to God for our comfort we see things in a different perspective, our dark and dangerous cave can in fact be a very valuable diamond mine.  When we follow God's plan we don't end up hurting and aching but stronger and richer than ever. 

In fact, we expected to die.  But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead.  And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again.  We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us. 
2 Corinthians 1:9-10 (NLT)