DARKNESS AND LIGHT

The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. [John 1:5]

Darkness

If you read this post on Friday, you probably wondered what was going on. Appropriately enough, I was getting firsthand experience with darkness. Thursday afternoon a violent storm blew in an erratic path across central Arkansas, taking out electric lines seemingly at random. My house was one that lost power–and access to the internet.

Darkness Disrupts

Up until last week (honestly) I’ve been at least two days ahead of schedule with my posts, but I was counting on finishing this one Thursday evening. Not only could I not finish the post, I had no way to pull down the very sketchy draft you saw. At first we were supposed to get power back by midnight, so I set my alarm for 6 a.m.–plenty of time before the 8 a.m. deadline. But I woke, not to lights and internet, but to a text that power would not be restored until Sunday or possibly Tuesday. That was when my freezer replaced this post at the top of my list of worries.

Darkness Teaches

My spiritual director recently suggested that when I begin to worry about something–of international impact or a daily schedule out of control–I pray it back and ask God what lesson God wants me to learn from this worry. Friday was a wonderful opportunity to try her suggestion. When I prayed about the food that was defrosting into mush, a name popped into my head–Becky. I called her, and not only was she willing to take my food, she was out doing errands. Within a half hour she was at my house picking up items to save. When I prayed about the post (yep, I was still worrying), the word pride popped into my head. Oops–I was worrying because I was embarrassed at being late. Feeling silly, I relaxed, and the post dropped off my list of worries. I would get to it–sometime relatively soon.

Light Shines

Friday night, without air-conditioning, TV, or a computer, I sat on my deck and watched night arrive. The heat of the day was over and there was a slight breeze. The moon play peek-a-boo with me from behind the last of the storm clouds. Then the lightning bugs began to appear. When I accepted the darkness, I discovered light in ordinary places. Perhaps that’s the lesson God wanted me to learn.