In the latest issue of MCC’s magazine, “Common Place”, there was a brief editorial that I found to be particularly meaningful— and thus felt the need to share this. The author articulates far better than I am able the precise paradoxical feelings of hope in the midst of all the seemingly overwhelming darkness in this world. I’m encouraged, let it be an encouragement to you as well for there is something beyond the present darkness we see and feel— there’s hope and love and life. And that’s what I’ve learned so far.
Beyond Darkness
By Bert C. Lobe, MCC interim Executive Director
What is there to be said about the weight of sadness? About tragedy? Shakespeare, in King Lear, seems to suggest that some sadness has to do with our blindness—blindness to the needs of others, and blindness to ourselves. Frederick Buechner suggests that it is obedience to times of sadness that teaches us that life is at once both tragic and comic, and that it is precisely this quality that constitutes life’s richness, terror and heartbreaking beauty.
But how do we respond to the dislocation, the fear and the suffering that strike down so many? How do we bear well the sadness near us and the sadness far away?
It is my experience that alone I struggle to bear the weight of sadness, of pain and of failure. Indeed without a strong faith I am unable to engage th contradiction and ambiguity that are part of life. The church incarnates care, is a place where redemption and hope are actualized; it is the sacred space where I am encouraged and admonished to be in the world in the manner and spirit of Jesus.
These are the few things I’ve learned about living beyond darkness. First, it makes much more sense to believe something rather than nothing. Second, never question the truth of what you fail to understand, the world is filled with wonder! Third, life is grace, full of endless possibilities.
Better to say yes to life and believe that God will be present with us than to say no. That’s what I’ve learned so far.
