The Bungee Cord 8-23-21

Hello,

A couple of nights ago, I woke up at 5:00 a.m. That’s early for me. Way before sunrise. But nevertheless, the moment I woke up, I was blinded by a bright light piercing the darkness and my southwest facing bedroom window, hitting me directly in the face. I quickly gathered my phone, aimed it at the light-source and snapped the picture that you see. Although the camera didn’t capture the sight as well as my eyes did, I think you can see that it looked like a search light was coming from a cross of light from the sky (the cross was far more visible in real life).

I’m not one who believes that God creates such sights to tell us something, rather I believe that sights like this, that just happen, create a reminder of something that God has already told us. The reminder of which this sight reminded me is the verse that speaks of Jesus from the first chapter of the Gospel of John, “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

There’s a Rich Mullins song, “Hold Me Jesus”, whose words could have been taken from my lips:

“I wake up in the night and feel the dark. It’s so hot inside my soul there must be blisters on my heart. Hold me Jesus ‘cause I’m shaking like a leaf. You have been my king of glory; won’t you be my prince of peace.”

Maybe you, like me, find yourself waking in the dark…not only the dark of celestial night, but also in the dark night of fear, guilt, and failure. Lost in lightless confusion. Paralyzed in shrouds of hopelessness. Reaching out for a hand to hold onto, and no hand is to be found.

I wrote a song a long time ago when I was in college, a song that every once in a while, finds its way into my soul even now.

“I feel like a hermit in a forest of people. No one to talk to, no one to hear. It’s like living alone in a busy train depot, the people all come but not very near. Folks hoarding their love as if pinching their pennies. Best to stay away, best to stay clear. You’d never believe that people have feelings. They don’t give their love. They just throw their spears. And what does it mean to be lonely in a crowd? What does it mean to feel nobody cares? What does it mean when you can’t shout out loud and the shoulder you cry on just isn’t there?”

When I have considered that verse from John, “the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it,” I have always envisioned the light of which John speaks like a candlelight that gives my eyes light to see around me and make my way through the darkness. But after my 5:00 enlightening, I now add to that understanding, a new way of thinking, and that is to understand that darkness conquering in terms of a spotlight; a spotlight of God’s love and mercy that searches me out in the darkest of times….not so much so that I can see and make my way through the darkness, but more so that God can find me and make his way to me in the darkness. In those times when the darkness is so powerful that scales of hopelessness cover my eyes, God, from the cross, pierces the darkness with a light whose candle power is greater than the universe in order to find me, embrace me, gather me in his arms and carry me out of the darkness like the one sheep that has gone astray.

I hope that you never find yourself so overwhelmed by darkness that a candlelight does you no good, but if you do, take a look at what I saw at 5:00 in the morning and know that God, with a cross-fastened search light will search you out until he finds you. “The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.”

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace, (ggap)

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger

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