News you can use

Out Our Way: Waiting for sunrise - John 1:1-5

Out our way, patience is an art form. When Charlie and I worked cattle, he never slowed down, but neither did he seemed impatient. No matter what the task of the day was or how difficult, Charlie was content that we would eventually get the job done. Even when the two of us had all we could do to keep the herd together as we tried to move them to the fall pasture. We spent hours trying to move them forward and they kept breaking off onto a myriad of trails, doubling back on us and simply refusing to get where they needed to go.

Even then, Charlie didn’t lose his patience. As two cowhands could not handle that many cattle who refused to herd,he simply said we would go back and get a few more hands later to get the job done. And it was so. Charlie never doubted the job would be done — even if it took longer than we expected. That was why he was so patient that day. As frustrating and disappointing as it had been with so many false hopes crashed as cattle broke and scattered time and time again, he still know and trusted that the job would get done. And it was.

It’s sort of like those long hours before dawn when out camping — you wake early and its cold, dark and lonely. It often feel like the darkness is eternal and will never end. The hours drag by and the dark remains. But you know better, because no matter how slow the night passes, it will pass. No matter how dark the shadows and black the sky, the sun will rise. And sure enough, the darkness begins to fade, the shadows retreat and vanish, and the seemingly all powerful darkness is totally vanquished — for darkness is the absence of light. It is emptiness. Darkness does not struggle with the light, for darkness is not a force, but the lack of it.

Now we often hear of the Forces of Darkness, but if one reads history, it usually seems that the evil so-called “powers of darkness” only rise up where the good “powers of light” have been ignored, or forgotten and allowed to burn out. Darkness cannot flourish against the Light, so those who serve the darkness work to get the lights turned off. They ridicule morality as out-of-date — they seek to blind the eyes of the world with hate slogans against those who sought to do their best. They rejoice in the fact that many are ignorant and believe all ages had the same views as we now accept today, but simply refused to honor them. Instead of celebrating the recognition of past errors and repentance of them, they continue to harp on the past as if it remained unrepentant. Hate speech and slurs against anyone who dares to challenge their ignorance or bigotry are designed to to blow out the candles and turn out the lights so darkness can prevail.

Hitler, Stalin, Mao, Castro, etc., all used the same tactics — mostly on the young and naive — to turn off the lights in their nations and bring on the darkness. Many see the same thing happening in our own country and worry.

George Orwell saw the danger and wrote warnings in his two masterpieces “Animal Farm” and “1984.” He was a prophet whose prophecies of the moral decline in those nations as the lights went out proved to be true. But he only predicted the rise of the darkness when people shut off the lights.

As Elie Wisel wrote about the Holocaust, when enough light was shut off, night came. But eventually, so did the dawn.

What is happening in the USA as the darkness creeps in due to lights being shut off and candles blown out has happened before — many many times before. Nations rise in the light, but eventually grow lazy, indifferent and foolish. Then the darkness creeps in, begins shutting off the lights and let the darkness come in. Night comes and the nation falls.

Yet history also reminds us that the sun still rises again and the darkness is banished. As I have shared before, I love that statement by the Russian priest who smiled when the official Soviet tour guides told tourists that the Church in the Soviet Union was nearly dead. He smiled because as he would later point out, “So said Lenin, and Lenin is dead. So said Stalin, and Stalin is dead. So have said so many leaders over the years and they are all dead. But we are still here.”

History tells us that night will always come when the light is allowed to go out — but also that eventually the sun will always eventually rise and the darkness will be cast out. “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it.” And one day there will be a last “night” for the “Sonrise” will be permanent.

So, like Charlie, who could be frustrated and disappointed up on the Tiger Ridge when things went sour, he never believed for a moment that the situation was hopeless or permanent. He just remained patient and knew the job would get done — no matter how long it took. And he was right.

Blessings,

Brother John Bruington

 

Reader Comments(0)