Bungee Cord 9-8-14

Hello,

     Last night was a full moon, and with no cloud cover the night was muted with light.  There are nights out here in the countryside that are so thick with darkness that one has to step slowly for each step is a step into the unseen.  But not last night.  So bright was the moon that you couldn’t look right at it without it leaving an imprint in your vision, and the ridge which is 10 miles away was as clearly visible as it is when the sun dives behind it and colors the sky.  It was night, alright, but the light had spilled into it and robbed the darkness of its power.

Psalm 139:11,12

¹¹ If I say, ‘Surely the darkness shall cover me,
   and the light around me become night’, 
¹² even the darkness is not dark to you;
   the night is as bright as the day,
   for darkness is as light to you.”

     Has this ever happened to you: you find yourself in a night of darkness, feeling yourself being swallowed up with the power of quick sand.  And then someone comes up to you, with the best of intentions, and says, “Hang in there.  It will get better.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”

     Although the intentions may be good, those words often don’t carry much hope.  How much hope do they carry when you know its not going to get better, as a matter of fact you know its going to get worse?  How much hope is there in these words when your strength to hold on and hang in there is spoken to muscles in your hand and heart burning up from overburdened use?  How much hope is there in these words when you are so beat down that you can’t get up, and that light at the end of the tunnel beams with sadistic taunt because it knows you’ll never get there?

     I have heard Christians speak these words, even pastors from the pulpit.  But with all due respect, I don’t think  that “Hang in there.  It will get better.  There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”  are Christ’s words,

     Jesus didn’t say, “Hang in there.”  He said, “Abide in me.”….Rest in me, for I will hold onto you..

     Jesus didn’t say, “It will get better.”  He said, “I know my own and nothing can snatch them out of my hand.”

     Jesus didn’t say, “There’s a light at the end of the tunnel.”  He said, “I am the light of the world….the light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.”

     It is true that sometimes we can hold on long enough for the darkness to pass.  Sometimes things do get better as the morning dawns.  Sometimes we do have the strength to crawl our way through tunnels.  But when those things aren’t true, Jesus has a word of hope, true hope, for us to hear….the hope whose power is seen in a full moon night….”Even the darkness is light to me,” says the Lord, “the nighttime is bright as the day!”  That is hope!

Have a great week.

God’s grace and peace,

Pastor Jerry Nuernberger