I will love the light for it shows me the way; yet I will love the darkness for it shows me the stars. —Og Mandino, The Greatest Secret in the World
Sister Joan Chittister describes darkness as a fertile place for our questions with no easy answers:
There is a part of the soul that stirs at night, in the dark and soundless times of day, when our defenses are down and our daylight distractions no longer serve to protect us from ourselves. What we suppress in the light emerges clearly in the dusk. It’s then, in the still of life, when we least expect it, that questions emerge from the damp murkiness of our inner underworld…. These questions do not call for the discovery of data; they call for the contemplation of possibility.
Unable to answer the questions life asks of us, we come to humble clarity and service to others.
There is a light in us that only darkness itself can illuminate. It is the glowing calm that comes over us when we finally surrender to the ultimate truth of creation: that there is a God and we are not it…. The clarity of it all is startling. Life is not about us; we are about the project of finding Life. At that moment, spiritual vision illuminates all the rest of life. And it is that light that shines in darkness.
Only the experience of our own darkness gives us the light we need to be of help to others whose journey into the dark spots of life is only just beginning. It’s then that our own taste of darkness qualifies us to be an illuminating part of the human expedition. Without that, we are only words, only false witnesses to the truth of what it means to be pressed to the ground and rise again. Darkness is a mentor of what it means to carry the light we ourselves have brought to blaze into the unknown parts of life so that others may also see and take hope….
The light we gain in darkness is the awareness that, however bleak the place of darkness was for us, we did not die there. We know now that life begins again on the other side of the darkness. Another life. A new life. After the death, the loss, the rejection, the failure, life does go on. Differently, but on. Having been sunk into the cold night of black despair—and having survived it—we rise to new light, calm and clear and confident that what will be, will be enough for us.
Growth is the boundary between the darkness of unknowing and the light of new wisdom, new insight, new vision of who and what we ourselves have become. After darkness we are never the same again. We are only stronger, simpler, surer than ever before that there is nothing in life we cannot survive, because though life is bigger than we are, we are meant to grow to our fullest dimensions in it.
Reference:
Joan Chittister, Between the Dark and the Daylight: Embracing the Contradictions of Life (Image, 2015), 11, 19–20.
Image credit and inspiration: Niko Tsviliov, untitled (detail), 2023, photo, Ukraine, Unsplash. Click here to enlarge image. Just as the moon dances with shadow and light, remaining herself throughout, we also dance with shadow and light, reflecting her wisdom rhythms.
Story from Our Community:
I began reading scripture daily several years ago and have truly experienced the Bible as the Living Word. Whether I’m in a relatively peaceful time of life or a stressful, chaotic time, I reach for scripture and often receive the gifts of consolation, grace, and spiritual direction that help me to discern God’s will at any given time. I’ve finally learned to trust it—God’s will—and let go. I’ve stopped trying to control things and listen for God’s voice instead. I’m living a life I never imagined and have finally been able to trust my heart and be the child I was created to be. What a gift!
—Elizabeth H.
