Coracle Trust E-Reflections
The walk into darkness
Tuesday 9 March 2010
In any part of our journey there may be a tangible sense of a beginning or of an end. But what about the path in between? Are there not periodic dips into darkness, or to use another Christian mystical term 'desert'? But what does this darkness brings us to?
Dawn, the beginning of a new day
Clouds and thick darkness surround him (Psalm 97:2)
Darkness is as light to you (Psalm 139:12)
The night will give you a horizon
further than you can see.
- Sweet Darkness, David Whyte
In any part of our journey there may be a tangible sense of a beginning or of an end. But what about the path in between? Are there not periodic dips into darkness, or to use another Christian mystical term ‘desert’? But what does this darkness brings us to?
David Whyte makes a surprising suggestion: sight.
Do we have to plunge into darkness before we see clearly? Maybe some part of me has to be blindfolded so other senses can catch up? Is there a necessary not knowing, a dis-orientation?
The simplicity of darkness and desert seem to strip us of pretence and reveal fundamentals – what is true, good and honourable. And so this darkness becomes in essence an excess of light.
It seems also that God is comfortable with darkness. Is it possible that darkness is necessary sometimes to see him?
So, how comfortable with darkness are we? Is there any desert God may be leading you into?