“Have you noticed the nights are growing darker?”
“Yes, my Lord, but the stars are growing brighter!”
In the midst of the chaos and the gore and the games lost and the harsh cruelty that can sometimes be this world, what do we have to do with it? What can I do, I am just a man?
If everyone thinks this way then we all fall. In your wrath remember mercy. Without mercy we are dead and no better than swine. How much deep suffering must there be for our course to be clear? All this talking. Useless words. When the task awaits your attempts.
Everyone is picking, whispering, trying to escape their chamber, instead of being a flame in the darkness. What will it take to be a light in the long, dark night? What will it take to wake us all from our deathless slumber? A deeper darkness?
Oh, sure we gasp in indignation, we take a deep breath at the dark nights unfolding, holding ourselves up with clean hands when our hearts are not clean. We are all sojourners in search of a banquet. But, how many of us will grab another by the arm and usher them through the door?
Is it all folly? Have we lost the sweetness of our youth? I say NO!
I say the sweetness of summer is close at hand. That the majesty of the fields of adventure are bubbling just beneath the surface of everyone’s eager hearts. Yes, perhaps we look through half closed eyes, but what if we opened our eyes, would the morning not grow all the more magnificent? Would we not see the sun shining and the beautiful light break through the bowels of the night?
Drink the cup of the dark days of winter, or savor the wine of sweet summer. It is your choice which one you lift to your lips.
3 thoughts on “Being a Light in a Dark World”
I thought, “that was so moving that I can’t not comment”, but so unlike you, I can’t find the words. So just, “thank you my friend”…
Oh, my precious friend, you ARE the light in a dark world, and all of us who know you burn ever brighter! May your flame continue to shine, may the fire of your heart ignite each one who crosses your path, and may they capture a small part of your light to share with those they meet.
These are the difficult, real-life situations that the apostle Paul addresses in our text. He is answering the question of how we, as children of light, should relate to a morally dark world. He doesn’t give us specific directions to follow when we face these difficult situations. But he gives us comprehensive guiding principles. By understanding these principles, each of us can think through how to respond when these situations arise, as surely they will.