Heralding the Darkness

Our culture is obsessed with the darkness.

The Walking Dead, Breaking Bad, pretty much any movie coming out this month proves my point.

While we're at it let's also indict the news for darkness-mongering. For every story of beauty and good there are dozens of more flashy headlines highlighting the depths of human depravity. 

Admittedly I'm not much for gore or horror. Anxiety and fear are provoked in my heart so I avoid the evening news as a whole. Perhaps I'm not the most unbiased of critics, but my point still stands.

We're not the only culture that invites evil in.

Our life in West Africa was a constant confrontation with the reality of evil. "We battle not against flesh and blood..." was a constant refrain. Many people have mental caricatures of medicine men and witch doctors in their heads, but our experience was tangible and anything but cartoonish.

Animism is woven throughout the culture making it necessary for Gospel centered, Jesus seeking churches to distinguish themselves from congregations who still allow or even encourage the incorporation of ancestor worship and engagement with evil spirits. The evil is palpable, the fear of our Christian friends over the evil practices and ceremonies was a real struggle they faced.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it. There was a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness to testify concerning that light, so that through him all might believe. He himself was not the light; he came only as a witness to the light.The true light that gives light to everyone was coming into the world. (John 1:1-9)

God made light. He said, "Let there be light" and from the beginning there was.  The darkness can't claim that it was there first. Darkness is the real intruder.

John the Baptist was a locus and honey eating light chaser. He heralded the Light. I'm guilty of praising the darkness with ugly gossip, harsh words, stories of the grim.

The darkness is evil and the more we talk about it, the more we give it credence in our life. Dwelling on evil is a toxic gas that creeps under the doorways of our life lulling us into a stupor. Changing the shadows into real shapes that affect real life.

What things do you watch, dwell on, invite into your life that are also invitations to the darkness?