8. It is in the darkness that one finds the light.

Monday, October 8, 2018

Truly, it is in darkness that one finds the light, so when we are in sorrow, then this light is nearest of all to us.” ~ Meister Eckhart

The imagery of light and dark reaches back to the beginning in the story of creation in Genesis:

Then God said: Let there be light, and there was light.c 4God saw that the light was good. God then separated the light from the darkness.
From <http://www.usccb.org/bible/genesis/1>

From the earliest days of our faith, understanding God wanted us to live in the light and to seek him in the light has been our bedrock. Avoiding the dark is a running through scripture from the Hebrew Testament into the Christian Testament. The symbolism of light overcoming darkness is so powerful throughout the Gospels in the letters of Paul.

Eckhart truly understands that in order grow spirituality we must know and experience darkness. When times are good, we get complacent and this unwinds our motivation to seek God. It is easy to forget our existence is separated into light and darkness and without one the other has no meaning.

I like to think I am praise and gratitude driven creature. I hope I am one who appreciates what has given me and the beauty of the world around me. I would like to avoid the sadness and pain that is a hallmark of being lost in darkness but, alas, as a human I must experience the darkness.

Over the years I have been taught that rather than shout and curse at the darkness I should, instead, ask what I am supposed to learn from of it. What lesson or outcome should I seek that will literally shine down on my path toward living according to his will?

On a grand day like this it is to look around and relish in creation and feel like everything will always be great. It is not reality. Reality is remembering my uncle is deeply grieving the loss of his partner and mother is also suffering from the pain of Hawn's passing along with an ongoing battle with debilitating anxiety. I also am mourning the loss of Hawn who was a larger than life presence in our family. The darkness creeps in and shadows fall across the day.

Time in darkness has given me tools to put perspective on sadness and loss, tools which are gifts of the holy spirit delivered by grace from a merciful God who understands the human condition far more than we can begin to grasp.

Paul wrote to church in Corinth about relieved from troubles but the response from God he related was that God's grace was sufficient because his power his made perfect in weakness. Without darkness, there would be no way to experience our humanity, no reason to search for a purpose in life that is only answered by understanding God's purpose for us. There would be no way to give perspective to seeing the power of Christ on the cross as the deliverance of salvation.