Let Go of the Dark

“The floods have lifted up, O Lord…the floods lift up their roaring.” – Psalm 93

When I talk to people who are living in the dark, darkly, I often try to retrain their vision. Many people think, with the psalmist, that a flood is coming. Differing with the psalmist, they think there is no way they can get above it. Even if you see political cruelty enhancing natural disasters, still faith lets us see that we can rise above both and not be diminished by either.

I often try to move attention to what is good. It ain’t easy! Once somebody has become the prisoner of darkness – instead of enjoying the night – even ice cream looks bad. It puts on weight or adds to cholesterol or shows that we are undisciplined. Some of us spiritually like the flood. We have no interest in being above it.

What would happen if we were to become re-enchanted with the world that God has made? Rather than being habitually disenchanted with it and ourselves?

Might faith not make the difference? Might hope not be the antidote to the complicit despair of having given up long before the rains come? Yes. But first we must let go of the dark, which we have come to so enjoy.

Prayer

When you promise that we can rise above the floods, we hear you, O God. Give us the faith of Noah and the grace of the returning dove. Amen.

ddauthordonnaschaper.jpgAbout the Author
Donna Schaper is Senior Minister at Judson Memorial Church in New York City. Her most recent book is I Heart Frances: Letters to the Pope from an Unlikely Admirer.