re: the dark before dawn

  Saying 'It's always darkest before the dawn' makes nearly as much sense as saying, 'You always find something the last place you look for it.' Of course you do... you don't keep looking after you find it, and if it got even darker, then it wouldn't be getting lighter, aka dawning!

  Alternately, despair.com has a different approach to this...

  However, this brings to mind one of my most recent favorites, Andrew Peterson's "The Burning Edge of Dawn."

I've been waiting for the sun

To come blazing up out of the night like a bullet from a gun

Till every shadow is scattered, every dragon's on the run

Oh, I believe, I believe that the light is gonna come

And this is the dark, this is the dark before the dawn...

This is the storm, this is the storm

The storm before the calm

This is the pain, the pain before the balm

This is the cold, the cold

It's the cold before the warm

These are the tears, the tears before the song

This is the dark

Sometimes all I see is this darkness

Well, can't you feel the darkness

This is the dark before the dawn.