Darkness Into Light
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Additionally, ADF trains lawyers and pundits on how to talk about complex legal issues in easy-to-understand ways. I support ADF with my giving and hope you will too. Right now they have a donor willing to match your donations through the end of the year. You can give here.
A suicide just happened. Somewhere out there, maybe down the street or across town or in the next state, someone just took their own life. By the time you finish reading this, someone else will be in their final moments before taking their life. One hundred thirty two times today, someone in the United States is going to commit suicide.
Someone will hang himself. Someone will shoot himself. Someone will cut himself. Someone will swallow pills or drown or swerve into oncoming traffic or jump or end their own precious life in a variety of ways. Each of them will take permanent, irreversible action to solve a temporary problem. Most will do so out of despair.
The pandemic has not helped. There is a striking moment in the second chapter of Genesis that narrates the Judeo-Christian creation account. The God of the Universe has made all things except humanity, then turns to create us. In His image and likeness He makes man. This man, Adam, the first of us, gets the pleasure of walking with the God of all creation. The very eternal will hang out with the man, walk with him, answer his questions, and commune with him. Still, though, God says, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” Gen. 2:18.
The God of all things knew it was not good for man to be alone, even though man could have a direct, tactile relationship with God himself. People need people. If only our public health officials and politicians had God’s wisdom. For two years now, we have isolated ourselves from one another. Families argue amongst themselves over holidays and vaccines and masks. All of us are finding excuses to dislike or judge one another and keep ourselves from each other. We are not meant to be that way.
In our isolation, we have dwelled on the void, the nihilistic age, and the perfection we see on social media — the well curated lives of others designed with the frozen smile and wink of perfection that masks the misery, dread, and despair of that life. I had a friend who had that well curated life. She had a high end legal job. She drove the fancy car and lived in the fancy house and wore the fancy clothes and knew all the fashionable ins. She had a cool factor that lit up a room. She drove into a crowded parking lot one day, swallowed pills, and the police found her body a few days later. The veneer of perfection masked the struggles and brokenness inside.
This time of year makes it worse. Our days are shorter and colder and darker. We wake up now with a sunrise and as we set out after work to enjoy time with friends, we head into darkness. Seasonal affected disorder is a real thing. Then there is the pressure of Christmas — financial and mental baggage held together with a desire to please others.
Social media is a great enabler of envy, covetousness, jealousy, and depression. Far less appreciated and more pernicious, social media helps enable our isolation. We become digital friends with those we really do not know. We commune with them and relate to them. We shut out real people for digital figments. We were not meant to be alone. We are not meant to commune alone with our phones. We are to be physically with others to see, smell, and feel.
In this darkness and despair, we have hope though. A child is coming. He will be born in squalor. Flee for his life. Grow up in wisdom. And die innocent in a shameful, painful way. But he will conquer death because he wants a relationship with you. And you can turn to Him and find peace in Him. He can dry eyes, mend spirits, and comfort the afflicted. The real Christmas is coming, the one that needs no present because it is the gift. The world brings despair. God brings light. If you are broken or in despair, cry out to Jesus. In the darkness, there you will find light.
Someone once asked me why I was a believer. I told her that to me, all the things that this world had to offer were not enough to satisfy my search for the meaning of life, and that I had come to the conclusion that we can only find true meaning and worth if there was Something which transcended mere human existence. That Something is God.
Our reliance on the eternal frees us from being trapped in seeking our true worth in mere things of human existence, all of which ultimately disappoint us. God gives us the freedom to seek Him or not; we are not automatons. And in 16 days, we will celebrate the birth of He who gives us true freedom and meaning. And the way the world is today, we need Him more than ever to put true light into that darkness.
Erick, this is a tremendous article! Thank you for your insight into humanity and sharing that Jesus is the gift that keeps on giving. He's the hope of humanity!