The need for light...

"Now may the Lord of peace himself give you peace at all times and in every way. The Lord be with all of you."
~ 2 Thessalonians 3:16
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At some point we all encounter darkness. Even the sundial encounters cloudy skies, and sleeps while the moon crosses it's path. Our encounters with darkness are marks in our life that some of us find hard to face.

Even God reached a point where the words, "Let there be light!" were declared.

Darkness is something we avoid. Like death, we don't discuss these moments. The death of Christ. The days in the tomb. The darkness of the sky, and the darkness in our humanness, filled with uncertainty. But then, the stone is rolled away. Christ emerges. Although scarred and marked by the journey, we declare, "He is Risen!"

One of the things that I am really struggling with is another mass shooting in Texas.  Since the shooting in Santa Fe, effecting the community that we live in, every time another shooting takes place, I have to wonder, "How much more darkness must we allow into our lives?"

I want to not just count, but experience the sunny days, even when we struggle.  Scripture reminds us that the darkness cannot overcome the light, but the the light is surrounded by darkness.  Keeping our eyes focused on what is before us, is necessary.  It is easy in moments like these to allow for us to lose sight of what we are being called to do.  

We need to realize that these events are destroying us one bullet at a time.  One mass shooting at a time. 

I feel like the world just seems to realize the darkness that seems to be everywhere.

Even the good guys that used to wear white hats seem to have turned dark. The things that I knew were right, seem to be lost in problems and principalities.

The struggle is not the darkness, but remembering that the darkness cannot overcome the true light that lies within each of us. It seems that hope has been lost, but then, I remember... Even the smallest flicker of a candle cannot be overcome by the darkest of rooms.

Although I seem to be embracing this time of reflection as something a bit dark, it is certainly shining light within and I still believe that tomorrow can be a sunny day, where I won't just count the moments of happiness, but I shall remember the moments when darkness tried to overcome and failed.

Let there be light can only be proclaimed when our voices reflect the need for things to change!

Stay in God's grip!

G. Todd Williams (c) 2019