THE WAY IS NOT DARK
One of the really good things about this first week in November is that the elections are over. We know who won (except for a couple senators). All the dire predictions about darkness and doom if the “other” one won have been cast in a whole different (and realistic) light. The world is a brighter place, if for no other reason than the ads are gone. Add to that about half the population will be happy because their candidate triumphed, so that half of the world is a little brighter too.
On the other hand there is a dim view of all this. The election results have yet to brighten the economic outlook or repair the dark future of my retirement account totals. The darkness of war still looms and in even more places than the day before the election, with the Russian President’s missile announcement. The gloominess of hunger and poverty and community tension and all the rest of the depressing news did not magically vanish in a flash of post-election light.
There is a more certain reality for seeing true light in our journey, a reality that comes from the depth of truth.
Part of that reality is that the world it is not as dark as the news makes it seem. It never is. That understanding is based on a truth that Christians claim shapes their lives: None of those elected, nor their financial contributors, is really in control. Christians confess, believe, and trust that GOD is in control. Jewish people and Muslims and a bunch of other faithful folk believe the same thing. Another part of that “more certain reality" is that GOD is a GOD of Light and Truth and Hope and Love and Joy, shinning with a brightness that no darkness can overcome.
As the globe tilts away from the sun with the shift of the seasons, and our sunlight dwindles, the True Light that has come for all people never diminishes. It’s not dark. It never has been. It never will be. The light we can live in is eternal, and no earthly circumstance nor anything else in all creation will be able to separate us from it; the true light of GOD’s love.