Finding God in Darkness

Our Zoom Church Meeting last night!

It was wonderful to see so many of you yesterday on our Zoom Church Meeting.  Almost fifty gathered and it felt very special and worthwhile.

Today I'm passing on the most recent letter from one of Regional Ministers, The Revd Colin Pye, published in the Central Baptist Association newsletter.  Colin has been a good friend to AFC over the years and, typically, his latest communication is full of heartfelt encouragement.

Whatever you are doing today may you find God in both the light and the darkness.

Dear Friends, Greetings from the team and I.   I just wanted to touch base with you in the midst of our second lockdown, more than anything simply to express solidarity with you in what is proving to be a miserable year for most, and devastating for some. Grappling with how we do church, what it means to be church in this context, and trying to second guess what the future looks like can be a wearisome business! I find myself looking to find joy in the simple things. Fortunately for me, I actually love this time of year, the gloomier the weather the better – fog, rain, storms, ground mist - bring it on.  I love nothing better than that when a dark cloud descends and closes everything in.  Wonderful.  I know that for many S.A.D people the very opposite is true, so apologies for dwelling on this thought. Here comes the point of this … Psalm 139:11-12 ‘If I say, “Surely the darkness will hide me and the light become night around me,” even the darkness will not be dark to you; the night will shine like the day, for darkness is as light to you.’ Even the darkness will not be dark to you! We miss out on so much if we imagine that God only dwells in the light – to find him in the darkness is one of the true gifts of faith. I heard Barbara Browne Taylor talking about her then new book ‘Learning to Walk in The Dark’ at the Greenbelt Festival several years ago, and remember thinking WOW, she really has a point! … I quote: “Even when light fades and darkness falls--as it does every single day, in every single life--God does not turn the world over to some other deity...Here is the testimony of faith; darkness is not dark to God; the night is as bright as the day.” …. “Instead, I have learned things in the dark that I could never have learned in the light, things that have saved my life over and over again, so that there is really only one logical conclusion. I need darkness as much as I need light.” I find the thought that there are things that we can learn in the darkness that we would never learn in the light a helpful one. My prayer as we enter Advent, which after all is a time of reflection in preparation for Christs advent, is that we may encounter in ‘our moments of darkness’ (and there is much around) the God who sits with us there just as much as in the light. May we open our eyes to his quiet presence with us. As I think about it personally looking back, perhaps the greatest transformation happens in those times and places that seem bleakest. Somehow we manage to draw on faith from the very depths of our being that not only sustains but changes us as well.  Bless you one and all. Colin