Light, Stillness, Simplicity and Hope

The light shines in the darkness. The darkness has not overcome it. At this darkest time of year, I light a candle.

Be still and know that I am God. Be still and know. At this busiest time of year, I choose to take time, to be still, and to know.

The stripped-down simplicity of the first Christmas. Bare. At this glitziest time of year, I focus on the natural simplicity of this supernatural event.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. At this time of worldly crisis and despair, I receive the joy and peace of Jesus, trusting in him and overflowing with hope which is based on the faithfulness of our loving Lord.

Let it shine!

Driving on a winter’s night in Scotland can be awesome. I avoid that over-used word but sometimes it is warranted. Saturday night was clear and cold. Orion could be easily identified amongst the other constellations, and a half moon shone down on the twinkling frostiness below. 

Arriving home at the ‘hillock, the only sounds to be heard were the occasional calls of owls in the woods beyond the fields. No light pollution nearby, the stars stretched from one horizon to the other.

Night seems to be falling on our world, but rather than focus on the darkness, I want to focus on the light. ‘In Jesus was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.’ 

Despite the pollution oozing everywhere, the light can still be seen. I see it in my friends and family and strangers. I saw it in church yesterday, breaking in through the worship, through the preaching, through the communion. Light in the darkness.

Let there be light, God commanded in the beginning. In the words of the children’s song, ‘This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine.’ Like the moon: reflecting the light of the sun. May we all reflect the light of the Son.

Let it shine.

Dawn is Breaking

Up before the sun this morning. Which sounds more impressive than it is at this time of year in Scotland. 

The dawn was breaking – that grey prelude to the day, at 7 when I stood in my prayer alcove and surveyed the familiar fields. I noticed that though the sun had not yet risen, the light showing on the tree trunks was lighter on the side facing east than on the other side. Gradually, though, the difference disappeared and the trunks were equally bathed in light.

But not every part. There are pockets of darkness in the intertwining trunks and branches, pockets which may well never see the light of day at all. In those pockets, one imagines, reside many nefarious creatures whose legless or alternatively many-legged forms writhe and scurry into deeper darkness as the dawn breaks. 

Jesus said that whatever is hidden will one day be revealed. There will come a day when the darkness will not be able to hide anything, when all will be revealed in the light of the glory of the coming King. That is a day to be joyfully anticipated, but in the meantime we are here for a purpose. We are here to let our light, the light of Christ within us, shine before others so they can see God and give him the glory.

Yesterday I had the privilege of serving in the local food bank for a couple of hours. It’s a job which can be acutely boring as not that many people come in. But the last two times I have had divine appointments with people who have sunk into the dark crevasses of life and are needing a helping hand out of them. A couple of guys winning the battle against drug dependency, and a guy whose life was derailed by his wife’s death and his subsequent sinking into alcohol. My prayer is that as they encountered us in the food bank, they were drawn more fully away from the strong temptations that may haunt them for life, drawn out of the dark and into the light.

May God bless all those whose life experiences have plunged them into pits of despair which led them to seek solace wherever they could. And may God bless us with generosity of spirit and depth of compassion, fuelled by the Holy Spirit, that we may be a blessing to whoever we encounter today.

So, it’s not yet 8 am and I am spiritually fed and watered and ready for whatever or whoever this day brings my way. So glad I can go into the day with Jesus. God bless you.

Solar Eclipse part 2

Solar Eclipse – further thoughts

The sun was turned off the day Jesus was crucified. For three hours. Much longer than yesterday’s solar eclipse.

When he died, although the sun shone again there was a darkness remaining in the world until Resurrection Sunday for the simple reason that the Light had gone out of the world. Jesus, the Light of the world, was no longer here. Neither was the Holy Spirit yet. And so the darkness over that Easter weekend must have been weird, thick, palpable.

Now that was a total eclipse of the Son. Must have been terrible to live through, especially for his mother, his family, his followers and friends. Terrible.

Black Holes Part 3

For someone with very little scientific knowledge, I seem to be rather focused on black holes at the moment.

It’s just that today, as I was praying for the world, I was using my most recent aide memoire, a small globe peppered with black dots where the current trouble spots are. Over the Middle East spreads a blanket of black dots. You can see where this is going. 

It appears from this globe that the Middle East is at present a black hole. Need presses on need. Atrocity follows horror. Injustice and pitiless brutality are mind-boggling in the extreme. Darkness pervades and it seems as if it is impermeable to light.

But even I know that when light comes, darkness flees. Jesus is the light of the world. When he comes into situations of extreme darkness, light comes with him. 

So, the Middle East is currently a place of extreme darkness, like a black hole eating up all the matter it encounters. But God has the power to transform that matter into brilliant light. He has the power to give individuals ‘Damascus-road experiences’. To change them from murderous zealots to Spirit-filled believers. Like a quasar, perhaps one day the Middle East will shine with the light of Jesus. 

No doubt about it. Jesus is the hope of the nations, and as dark as nations may appear, he can transform that darkness in an instant.

Hope springs eternal

‘Hope springs eternal’ was a favourite phrase of my mother-in-law, usually said in relation to a raffle or lottery ticket. 

In our world of conflict and spreading darkness, hope is a mind-set in short supply. I hear people expressing fears about the outcome of the conflict in Ukraine, whether it will draw us all into an Armageddon scenario. The news jerks from one nation under siege and in a failing way to another. World leaders wring their hands, make pronouncements, but after the disastrous interventions of recent years are reluctant to do more than impose sanctions. Indeed, what can they do?

They could do as King Hezekiah did several thousand years ago, when the threat came from Nineveh and he knew his own small country hadn’t the power to resist an all out attack. He went to God. He threw himself on his knees before God and asked that God would intervene on their behalf. And God did.

In these days when a black tsunami seems to be gaining momentum, power, and is headed our way, as a Christian I place my hope and trust in the Prince of Peace and the Light of the World. I call on Jesus to penetrate the darkness with the light of his truth and to speak the words of power which he uttered on the Sea of Galilee, ‘Peace, be still’. I expect to see the approaching tsunami collapse, subside, and for peace to be restored.

May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. God does not want us to crouch in fear but to walk in faith. He is an Almighty Father, a powerful Lord, whose very essence is love. Put your trust in him today, and stay alert to notice the differences that makes to the smaller tsunamis in your life.