Darker than normal? Darker than usual? We can blame some of it on daylight savings time now that we have fallen back, but perhaps it is something more.
While I love getting that ‘extra hour’ of sleep, I do not like how dark it gets now. At my house, the darkness seems to drop like a heavy curtain on a stage; the dusty, black velvet signaling the show is over and it is time to go home or, in my mind, off to bed.
But, I can’t. The clock tells me it is only 6:00 p.m. and my family still has to clean up dinner and the kitchen, catch up with Matt and his day of work, plan the next day, evening prayer and on and on. So, we fight against the dark and keep going until our to do list is done (or mostly done).
This same is true when the darkness is inside our soul rather than just outside our windows. There can be times when we feel trapped behind heavy, musty, old, moth-eaten stage curtains. We slog on, fight against the dark but we just want to go home and hide under the covers until springtime comes. Since we can’t do that, what is the answer?
Turn on the lights!
In my house, daylight savings is when my fireplace is ready to roar with flames that both warm the house and bring it beautiful light. We dust off the light bulbs, find all the cobwebs, and switch on those lamps that were unused throughout the summer. Ah, more light in the home always lifts my spirits and makes getting the work done much easier.
As for my soul, I need to bring more light there as well. “I am the light of the world”, Jesus tells us in John 8:12. So, when my soul seems a bit dark, weighed down by my sins or the sins of the world, I know it is time to get more Jesus in there. Confession is first on my list to remove the dust and cobwebs. I turn to sources of light set aside during the summer such as daily reading of the Bible and recommitting to prayer with Matt before falling asleep. These small actions lift my soul and remind me that the darkness runs when confronted by the light of the world.
“the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:5
“But whoever lives the truth comes to the light, so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God.” John 3:21
