People are feeling overwhelmed. People are feeling in the dark. We all seem to be groping around in the daylight of the Unknown.
When I talk about darkness and the dark, it is synonymous with the Unknown, that aching feeling that lingers in our stomachs when we are not really sure if everything is or is going to be OK – that is the dark; that is the unknown.
And if we are honest, we are all still somewhat afraid of the dark and the unknown. In fact, we assume darkness is negative or bad. We tend to focus only on the negative aspects of darkness – even defining as the absence of light.
We assume nothing good comes from the dark or unknown. But I beg to differ. Darkness is also a place and space where life grows (babies for one); darkness and the unknown are spaces where God dwells. For God dwells just as much and as comfortably in darkness as anywhere else.
God is comfortable in darkness; it is we who are not. But in these times that we call dark, I encourage you, I challenge you to use these days of aloneness and solitude to learn this great gift: God works as freely and fully in the dark as anywhere.
In the darkness, we are all but forced to surrender what is familiar and comfortable and enter into the uncomfortable place of the Unknown – a place of creation and transformation.
We may be living in a time of uncertainty, but what is certain is that we can either grow or shrivel during these times. We can either, in brutal authenticity, admit and dive into our fears, and begin to discover what it means to be overshadowed by what is divine.
Overshadowed is a metaphor often used in sacred text to describe how God came to people – Moses and Mary to name two. Overshadowed means “to darken cover in darkness”.
These days of supposed darkness can become for us all, a time of re-creation (recreation) and reinvention. And in this space, maybe some parts of the darkness can become sacred and safe, almost divine.
And in divine darkness, we are taught a priceless lesson: we are taught to trust the sight that comes not from seeing with the eyes of our heads, but the eyes of our hearts. For when we see in this way, the journeying into darkness becomes the Gift of all things becoming new…
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