We all encounter the dark night of the soul and sometimes a season of night. This is a season of life when the entirety of our lives feels like one long enactment of Murphy’s Law. It seems that everything that can go wrong eventually will as if there is only one conclusion before us – suffering, pain, loss and a good life destroyed. It is as if darkness comes with a cloak of invisibility and placing it upon us we disappear from the consciousness of friends and even from God. We feel forsaken and forlorn. It leaves us wondering if anyone cares about our plight and our pain. We begin to wonder, “Have I been forgotten? Does anyone care?” What can we do when the night has fallen and darkness descends upon us?
We search for light
The Darkness hates the light. Darkness will not contend when the light appears; darkness flees. When the light shines, the darkness must hide because it is no match for the light. Its radiance and power restores hope to the hopeless, illumination to eyes and minds that were darkened and boldness to the timid traveler in a dark world. With confidence restored we walk with surety and even a swagger because we have power, we have light. When the night has fallen and darkness descends we do not retire from battle, we make war with the darkness and we prevail.
We prevail because we have the light. While there are many sources of illumination to do battle with the darkness, not all light is equal. A solitary match will only do you the faintest of good when you are facing the abyss of darkness. A candle would surely be better, a hundred candles better still, but there is only one source of light that will eradicate darkness and secure the victory. It is the light of day. The light of day is brought by the Sun. The sun, a single star held so near that in its turn vanquishes the darkness to become mere shadow. The light of the sun is the only power so bright that will give us confidence that night will not last forever. It is this truth that inspires us with the confidence that we will not be overcome by the darkness.
This is not hypothetical. This is not theoretical. This is reality. Christ Jesus is and has been my morning light. He is the reality that brings me through my darkest nights. While there are other (read lesser) lights that I could use to guide my way, there are none so bright as the light of Christ. It is when I hold him closest of all things in my life that I have my greatest hope and the surest light to guide my way.
The physical realities of darkness and the sun are truly a testimony about the reality of God. The reality of the light that is God has been said like this, “God is light; in him there is no darkness at all.” It is because God is pure and incomparable light that the darkness has no chance! This reality doesn’t make us shy away from doing battle with the darkness. It emboldens us to take the fight to the darkness. This is why Jesus could trust in His Father, live for His Father and die for His Father. When His hour had come he had no reason to fear and neither do we. When night is falling around us we will not fear because we have the light. This reality is our clarion call to embrace the light, to be transformed by it ultimately becoming people of light, people of God.
