“The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the land of deep darkness a light has dawned.” Isaiah 9:2
The season of Advent began yesterday. Over the next few weeks Christians will be preparing for the celebration of Christmas. Advent is a time of waiting and eager anticipation. It seems to me that the natural year offers us a helping hand for Advent. This is the time of year when the nights are long. Many people find the long nights disconcerting. It doesn’t seem right for it to be getting dark when it’s barely 4:00 p.m. Some folks even experience depression as a result of the longer nights. That’s understandable. As a general rule, we long for light.
Right now a lot of us are longing for longer days. Those days of extended light will soon be here. After December 21 the time of daylight will begin to lengthen. At the winter solstice we celebrate that the darkness does not prevail. That is a theme of Advent as well. The darkness that prevails in the world right now will not last forever. A better day is coming, a day characterized by light.
The prophet Isaiah lived in a time of spiritual darkness and prophesied that “a great light” would dawn upon the people. Christians believe that he spoke of the coming Messiah and that his words were fulfilled with the birth of Jesus. It was a bright light in the sky that led the Wise Men or Magi to the Christ child. Later Jesus would identify himself as the “light of the world.” The author of the Fourth Gospel declared “In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” (John 1:4-5)
I am thankful that God’s Light was revealed to us in such a marvelous way that first Christmas. Over the years that Light has brought me much comfort and joy. It has also brought me a great deal of hope. I look forward to the day when that Light will be made manifest in all his glory. In the meantime we will have to endure periods of darkness and do all we can to share the light of Christ with others. How encouraging it is to know that sooner or later brighter days will come. The Light will, in fact, prevail over the darkness. Our Advent hope will be fulfilled.
The much heralded total eclipse of the sun has now come and gone. Did you see it? I’ve heard some people share what an amazing experience it was. I’ve heard others speak about how disappointing it was. Some confessed to me they never looked out that day, they just watched it all on television. I watched the eclipse from our church’s playground. Thankfully I had a pair of safe glasses to use to watch the moon cover the sun to varying degrees. When the moon almost covered the sun the streetlights around the church came on and the crickets began to chirp. The quality of the light definitely changed making it a surreal moment. Here in Henderson the moon covered 99.4% of the sun. I thought that would surely be close enough to a total eclipse that I could take some photographs. But I was wrong. Even at the peak moment there was too much light for me to risk taking a picture. If I had purchased a solar filter I could have done so but, once again, I was convinced we would be close enough to a total eclipse that I wouldn’t need one. Oh well, live and learn.
I did learn an important truth on Monday, one that concerns the spiritual life. I learned that it doesn’t take a whole lot of light to make a big difference. Even when only .6% of the sun was visible it was still bright, so bright I had to have my solar glasses to look at it. Here we should all be reminded that Jesus, who was himself the “Light of the world,” has called each of us to be “the light of the world” also. The Bible says we are to let the light of God shine through us before others. Why is this important? The answer is pretty obvious, isn’t it? Because there is so much darkness in the world. There is so much hatred, ugliness and division. Racism and injustice are prevalent. Greed, lust, and anger continue to dominate the scene. Wars and rumors of war are in the news daily. The amount of darkness in the world is staggering, so much so that we may wonder if there is any hope for the world. But there is hope. Darkness can be defeated. It doesn’t take a lot of light to dispel the darkness. That’s why it’s so important that we let our light shine. I may not be but a single light but I can make a difference. My church may not be a large church but if we shine together it can make a huge difference in our community and beyond. John 1:5 says “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” I hope we will all do our part to make sure that God’s light continues to shine in and through us. I hope we will do our part to dispel all the darkness we can. For God’s sake, and that of others, let your light shine!
It sure does get dark early this time of year in western Kentucky. That has been one of my major adjustments since moving here and finding myself in the Central Standard Time zone once again. A lot of people in this area go to work in the dark and when they get off of work it’s already dark again. Darkness arrives early and it makes the nights seem so very long. I don’t like it. It’s depressing. It messes with my mind. And for a few more days it’s only going to get worse. But there’s the good news, it’s only for a few more days. The winter solstice arrives next week and slowly, but surely, the hours of daylight will lengthen.
It is knowing that the long nights will not last forever that makes them endurable. When you have hope of longer and brighter days to come you can bear the shorter and darker days. That hope sustains you. That hope sees you through.
Such thoughts seem appropriate during the Advent season. This time of year we remember how long ago God’s people longed for the coming of a Savior and how the prophet Isaiah declared that one day things would be different. He wrote, “The people walking in darkness have seen a great light; on those living in the shadow of death a light has dawned.” (9:2) Ironically, it was a great light that led a group of Magi to the one born to be King of the Jews. Later, when Jesus began his teaching ministry he announced “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12) In so many ways Jesus did, in fact, bring light to the world. During Advent we pause to remember how that light made its entrance.
Advent, however, is more than just a time for looking back and remembering. It is also a time for looking ahead. Before Jesus left this world he promised that he would one day return. That has not happened yet but we live with the confidence and assurance that someday it will. That is good news, especially in dark days like these. And here, by dark days, I am not referring to the shortage of daylight. All you have to do is watch or read the news and it becomes obvious that a deep darkness pervades much of the world. Scores of innocent children are murdered while they are at school in Pakistan. Various groups of people suffer regularly from racial injustice. Thousands die each day from hunger and poverty related illnesses. Violence raises its ugly head unrelentingly. Climate change and pollution threaten the lives of millions. Yes, there’s a lot of darkness out there.
The darkness around us will not last forever however. A better day is coming. In fact, there is a time approaching when there will be no more darkness. That is something that we are promised in Revelation 21:25. The one who is the Light of the world will prevail and his kingdom will one day be fully established. In the meantime, followers of Jesus must never forget that he said we, too, are “the light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14) As long as darkness remains in this world we have work to do, we must let our light shine. Until the Second Advent takes place we are charged to do all we can to dispel the darkness around us. I need to be a light for you. You need to be a light for me. We need to be a light to all those around us. It’s what the one born in Bethlehem is counting on us to do. I pray we will not let him down.
–Chuck
(I took the images used above in New Mexico and California.)
I spent the past week at the Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico. It was an incredible experience on numerous levels. I enjoyed learning from John Philip Newell as he talked about his new book, The Rebirthing of God. He and his wife, Ali, also led in worship each morning and evening. The services were spiritually uplifting. The landscape around the Ghost Ranch was also incredible. I have traveled extensively around the Desert Southwest and without a doubt this was some of the most beautiful scenery I’ve ever seen there. Each day I had a chance to get out and do some photography in the area. This, too, proved to be spiritually uplifting. I always seem to sense God’s nearness in the desert for some reason.
One very pleasant surprise for me at the Ghost Ranch was the night skies. Two nights the skies were completely clear and those nights I witnessed the glory of the heavens as never before. The Milky Way seemed almost close enough to touch. I was in total awe. The words of the Psalmist kept coming to mind: “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place; what is man that you are mindful of him, the son of man that you care for him?” (8:3-4) I did indeed feel humbled beneath the vastness of the heavens above but at the same time I recognized that the One who made those stars dwelt within me and was close by. The transcendence and immanence of God was apparent at one and the same time. I could not help but offer my worship to the Maker of heaven and earth.
Each morning as a part of our workshop we were asked to go outside and spend twenty minutes in silence. On the day following my close encounter with the Milky Way I spent my twenty minutes laying down on a large stone beside a giant cottonwood tree looking up at the sky. The sky was a beautiful blue, punctuated with fluffy white clouds. After a while it dawned on me that I was looking up in the same area I beheld the stars the night before and that those stars were still there extending their light. Because of the brightness of the sun the stars could not be seen but they were there nonetheless. This was, of course, something I already knew, but it did drive home a truth that I had not pondered previously—some manifestations of God’s glory can only be experienced in darkness.
While at the Ghost Ranch I finished reading Barbara Brown Taylor’s new book, Learning to Walk in the Dark. This inspirational work has made me look at darkness in a new way. She offers many compelling reasons to embrace the darkness, both physical and spiritual. At one point Taylor writes, “If we turn away from darkness on principle, doing everything we can to avoid it because there is simply no telling what it contains, isn’t there a chance that what we are running away from is God?”
I am convinced more than ever that we must learn to approach the dark periods of our life in a new light. We tend to think of darkness in negative terms but it may well be that the darkness is needed at times for God’s glory to be revealed. There are lessons that God can only teach us, things that the Creator can only show us, in the dark seasons of our life. This doesn’t necessarily make those dark seasons easier to endure but it does offer us a glimmer of hope—that in the darkness we may just see a light or manifestation of God that could not be seen otherwise. The skies above New Mexico and the testimony of many of the saints of history all bear witness that this is true. When you find yourself in darkness—whether physical, spiritual or emotional—I encourage you to look for that which might not be seen otherwise. It may just be that it is in the darkness where you will see God the clearest.
–Chuck
(I took the images above at or near the Ghost Ranch in northern New Mexico this past week.)
“If I say, ‘Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,’ even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.” Psalm 139:11-12
Barbara Brown Taylor has long been considered one of America’s best preachers. She also happens to be a very good writer. I am currently reading her newest book, Learning to Walk in the Dark. In this delightful book Taylor offers a positive take on darkness and speaks of its many benefic. One of the things she does here is contrast “solar spirituality” with “lunar spirituality.” She says full solar spirituality “deals with darkness by denying its existence or at least depriving it of any meaningful attention” and “focuses on staying in the light of God around the clock, both absorbing and reflecting the sunny side of faith.” She goes on to say you can recognize a full solar church “by its emphasis on the benefits of faith, which include a sure sense of God’s presence, certainty of belief, divine guidance in all things, and reliable answers to prayer.” All of this sounds good on the surface but Taylor says what these churches seem to lack is the skill for operating in the dark—a darkness that invariably invades each of our lives.
Barbara Brown Taylor claims to lack the gift of solar spirituality and says her gift is, instead, “lunar spirituality, in which the divine light available to me waxes and wanes with the season.” She talks about how the moon changes shape constantly and as such “the moon is a truer mirror for my soul than the sun that looks the same way every day.” Things do not appear as clear or certain in a lunar spirituality but that does not mean it is any less real or genuine as solar spirituality. For many, me included, it just seems more true to my experience and to reality.
Taylor does a good job of exposing the benefits—spiritual, physical and emotion—of darkness. She is to be commended for tackling this subject; few would choose or dare to. In Learning to Walk in the Dark I find a model of the spiritual journey that resonates with my own experience. My life and spirit do not seem to be cut out for a solar spirituality. It is much more in tune with what Taylor calls lunar spirituality.
If you are someone more attuned to a solar spirituality you may question those who walk this different path. I hope you will be careful not to judge too quickly. In some ways it may take a greater faith to walk this path than those who walk in the sunlight. Regardless, both paths lead in the same direction. Here is the good news Barbara Brown Taylor offers: “even when light fades and darkness falls—as it does every single day, in every single life—God does not turn the world over to some other deity. Even when you cannot see where you are going and no one answers when you call, this is not sufficient proof that you are alone. …darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day.”
At one point Taylor asks, “If we turn away from the darkness on principle, doing everything we can to avoid it because there is no telling what it contains, isn’t there a chance that what we are running from is God?” Since many biblical characters, and the saints that have followed them, found or encountered God in the darkness we might, in fact, miss encountering the divine presence if we avoid the darkness at all cost. I hope you’ll think about that the next time you look up into the night sky or find yourself enveloped by the absence of light.
–Chuck
(I took the top image at Death Valley National Park and the bottom two in Henderson, KY.)
