In the Dark
The lights went out last night. My five-year-old son was in the middle of his bedtime shower. Soapy and in the dark, he called out to me to help him. He was annoyed, frustrated, and sure the soapy residue would remain on his skin until the electricity came back on. I turned my cell phone flashlight on and took him downstairs to another bathroom to rinse off. Light provides a measure of security, and we have light bulbs that collect energy and come on in the event of loss of electricity, so we aren’t completely in the dark during a power outage. Have you ever been in the dark in your own house and bumped into something you knew was there? It’s crazy, right? When visibility is low, or worse, there’s no Light at all, you’re guaranteed to bump into something. When you can’t see, you can’t walk with confidence, because you don’t know what’s in front of you. How many things have you bumped into when it went dark - things you knew were there? You knew the size, shape and proximity of the thing and you still walked right into it! And then you felt like a fool because you knew it was there. You should have walked around it, or under it, or stepped over it, or…(you get the picture). Maybe you never knew the thing was there. Maybe someone moved it from its proper place, or intentionally put it in your way. No matter how it happens, loss of sight due to lack of Light can be crippling in the moment. You’re scared to move, especially in an unfamiliar environment. You’re fumbling and stumbling around, knocking things down and breaking them. You get hurt, but you can’t help yourself because you can’t find your way to the first aid kit. You hear noises and wonder if you’re in danger. But you can’t see. Ugh. You can’t see! A sense of desperate frustration takes over and you go into full survival mode, ready to attack anything that brushes against you in the dark (or wait…is that just me?). So you fall to the ground, cower in place, trembling, afraid to make another move, praying the darkness will pass.
The COVID-19 pandemic was a sudden loss of Light for the world. There are countless people sitting in the dark, afraid of what is coming next and not knowing if they should get up and try to move around or just stay put until the Lights come back on. They’re asking themselves, “Does it even make sense to try?” Is that you, sitting on the floor, waiting for the electricity to come back on so you can resume your Life? Is that you with your plans and dreams on hold because you can’t see the way forward? Whatever you call it, being “sheltered in place”, “on lockdown”, or “in quarantine” has forced us to face the dark area of the uncertainty of Life’s circumstances. So many of us didn’t have the right plans in place to handle this. So many of us didn’t have the savings, the job security, the resources, or the mental capacity to navigate a worldwide plague. Some of us didn’t have hope, because we relied on each day to tell us how good it would be to us. While we were living “lit” lives, the Light didn’t come from inside. When the lights went out in the world, did it go out inside you, too?
If you’ve ever experienced a sudden loss of Light, you know your eyes eventually adapt, and no matter how dark it is, in most situations, your eyes will adjust and eventually you will be able to see basic shapes, and you can make your way around, albeit slowly. Your other senses will inform you of what is around you. God doesn’t leave us without resources – not even, and especially, in the dark. Squinting your eyes to use all the Light that is available to you, the future becomes barely visible in the darkness as a small dot of Light. It’s enough to give you hope to walk towards it.
In tomorrow’s blog post I will share more about that glimmer of Light, and how you can use it to light a path to a better Life.