Endarkenment

I was surprised to find Barbara Brown Taylor featured on the cover of Time magazine’s April 28th issue. I mentioned her in an earlier post re her book Leaving Church.

The article points out that we seek enlightenment but shun darkness. Indeed, enlightenment is a goal of many religions. Darkness in the Bible is at times identified with evil, sin, spiritual blindness. Taylor says darkness holds more lessons than light and that contrary to what many of us believe, it is sometimes in the bleakest void that God is nearest. “New life starts in the dark. Whether it is a seed in the ground, a baby in the womb or Jesus in the tomb, it starts in the dark.”

“Turning in to darkness, instead of away from it, is the cure for a lot of what ails me. Because I have a deep need to be in control of things, to know where I am going, to be sure of my destination, to get there efficiently, to have all the provisions I need, to do it all without help—and you can’t do any of that in the dark.”

Some of her thoughts tie in with Belden  Lane’s Ravished by Beauty, his examination of centuries of Reformed theology’s perspective on how nature reflects and communicates to us about God. Some of his observations:

“One experiences God in loss even more powerfully than in attainment.”

“One should never automatically assume adversity to be a sign of God’s punishment. God’s sending of a ‘sea of troubles’ to heighten the longing of the faithful was a mystery that captivated the Puritan mind.”

“A God of wild splendor is found in nature’s dark side as well as its lightness and beauty. Encountering God means facing head-on the unexplainable mysteries of a world filled with pain.”

“Nature serves as a school of affliction as well as a school of desire [to experience the transcendent God]. It disrupts the ego, redirects misplaced longings, and teaches radical trust.”

In darkness we must trust God’s goodness and redemptive powers. Whether our bowls (lives) are filled with darkness, light, natural beauty, or natural disaster, He is in control. He sees what we cannot see in darkness as our begging bowls fill.