Light in the Midst of Darkness

It’s the solstice today. The shortest day of the year. The day with the least amount of light and the most darkness.

What better day to talk about light.

I simultaneously dread this day and look forward to this day. Dread for the same reason I dread the rainy, gray weather – I am solar powered. I get my energy from the sun. When the sun isn’t out, I feel drained and I have no energy. This time of year, I wish I were a bear so I could hibernate. Wake me up when the sunshine comes back.

After tonight, the days start getting longer. It’s not really noticeable for awhile, especially when it’s gray and rainy. But eventually, it’ll still be sorta light at 5 pm and I’ll notice and it’ll be wonderful.

in the meantime

What do we do?

We turn on the lights.

Stick with me here.

I’ve been thinking about this for a bit this morning, and it’s starting to make a little bit of sense in my head.

There are physical lights that we should turn on.

If you are affected by the low levels of light this time of year like I am, you should totally get a happy light and use it.

Since we’re just about to Christmas, you should totally turn on those Christmas lights. The lights on the tree and the porch and the table make me smile.

Light the candles. Don’t light them and forget them. But light the candles. There’s just something about candlelight. Maybe have a meal by candlelight. Just don’t get your hair too close. And watch those teenage boys with their paper napkins and plastic utensils near the open flames.

Build a fire in the fireplace or wood stove. Just make sure your flue is open and your chimney is okay. Try not to set off your smoke detectors.

What about the not-so-physical lights?

What about a movie?

Or perhaps there’s an author that just makes things feel brighter.

Whether you insist on the movies or the books, remembering JRR Tolkein’s Lord of the Rings helps me fight back the darkness. For most of the story things are so very dark. Sauron and Sarumon are so very strong. There are just so many orcs. Are Frodo and Sam ever going to make it to Mordor?

Aragorn says, “There is still hope.” When he says it, it doesn’t seem like there’s any hope at all.

Every time I remember that, it gives me hope.

But it’s just a story! It’s fiction!

Yup. It’s a good thing orcs aren’t real, isn’t it? It’d be kinda cool if elves and Gandalf were.

Fiction though it be, it’s an excellent example of persevering in spite of darkness, looking for hope, battling against darkness, standing up for the light.

It gives me hope.

It turns on a proverbial light.

Dickens’ A Christmas Carol turns on a light, too. I love the way The Muppets did it in their movie – the music and the classic Muppet humor. Ebeneezer Scrooge becomes a completely different man by the end of the story. Granted, he gets to deal with a bunch of well-meaning ghosts who teach him a lesson. Yet, he learns generosity and kindness and compassion.

If that’s not a proverbial light, than I don’t know what is.

what about music?

Is there a type of music or a musician that just brings the light into your life?

Maybe it’s an album.

Or perhaps this time of year, listening to any Christmas music helps to dispel the darkness for you.

For me, it depends on the mood that I’m in. And, lately, how much my head is hurting and how sound sensitive I am.

Sometimes, anything by Andrew Peterson does the trick because his songs are chock full of light.

Other times, the livelier playlist put together for 100 Days to Brave really makes the light shine and shoves back the dark.

When my head really hurts and can’t handle much of anything, then I listen to something by John Rutter. He writes and arranges choral music. His arrangements of Psalm 130 and Psalm 23 are my favorite.

Then there are other days when I really want to listen to absolutely silly Christmas songs like the kind I used to listen to as a kid.

Other light bringers

What else can you think of that brings light?

What about art? Is there a famous painting that always seems to lighten your heart? Or a not-so-famous painting or work of art? Perhaps a photograph or sculpture? Can you find a reproduction of it that you can put in somewhere in your house? Or maybe just find a photo of it online that you can look at every now and then. If you live close enough to the gallery or museum, make a trip to go see it.

Maybe you have a dear friend who knows how to make you laugh until you snort. Time to schedule a coffee date.

Does baking cookies give you joy? How about baking Christmas cookies? Get together with some friends. Turn on some Christmas music and bake. Post some pictures to social media and make your online friends’ mouths water.

Volunteering brings joy and spreads light, too. Where can you help? Do you have the resources to be able to volunteer? If not, that’s okay. Can you donate in another way? A couple cans of food or a few dollars? If not, that’s okay, too. We all do what we can when we can. If you need help, take the help. When you are able to help, give freely.

When you help, you are chipping away at the darkness surrounding someone. You are bringing light.

the Light Bringer

He brought light, you know. That little baby born all those years ago. Emanuel – God with us. He was Heaven’s light come to this dark little world. He came after so much silence. He came into a such a harsh place.

The Roman Empire was seriously cruel to the nations it conquered. The Jewish leaders only cared about hanging onto their power. The ones who should have known who the baby was because they studied the Scriptures all the time rejected him because he didn’t fit their idea of a conquering hero who would come and kick out the Romans.

It was the broken people, the hurting people, the messed-up people, the people who knew they how much they needed someone to deliver them from themselves that saw the baby for who he really was.

There’s this part in Ann Voskamp’s book The Broken Way where she’s talking about one of her daughters making a paper heart and taping it to her shirt, and the paper heart tears. Instead of crying she says, “Maybe the love gets in easier right where the heart’s broke open?”

Since I first read that book, I haven’t been able to get that question out of my head.

Isn’t that the truth, though?

It’s the broken places that allow the love to get in.

It’s the people who knew they were broken who were drawn to the baby and then to the grown-up Jesus. And they were changed. The love – the light – got in and they were never the same. They were healed. They were whole.

It was the people who didn’t think there was anything wrong with them who didn’t want anything to do with him. They debated him and mocked him and had him killed. They persecuted his followers.

how will you look for light?

On this shortest day of the year, I choose light.

Even though it is gray and raining and miserable and muddy outside, I choose light.

I have had a headache for 62 days straight. But I am choosing light. I am choosing joy. Not an easy choice with the pain, but a choice I am making nonetheless.

Right now, I am sitting in a mostly silent house with soothing Christmas music playing on my phone. The lights on the tree are on. I am watching the rain come down outside. Yet I am smiling occasionally when I look outside because of the hummingbirds. We have several feeders hanging up outside these windows here, and the hummingbirds always make me smile.

I have had several cups of tea as I have written this.

I read these excellent thoughts about darkness and the coming of light. Go read it. Let me know what you think.

I also heard this beautiful song this morning. Glory in the Darkest Place. What a title!