You don’t have to watch the news for any length of time before you sense darkness in this world.

Evil lurks in parking lots, schools, malls…..

anywhere you find people.

I’ve heard people say, “I just don’t watch the news anymore,”

as if denial has power over reality.

I sit with other professionals who worry about the next generation of adults…

lost, broken, hurt, angry.

Evil breeds evil,

and

darkness somehow manages to get darker.

I wonder how the Egyptian people felt as plague after plague overcame their land.

I wonder if they realized what was going on in the palace as Moses pleaded for the release of his people yet Pharoah continued to have a hardened heart, saying, “No, your people cannot go.”

The plague that stood out this morning as I read didn’t involve flies or locust or hail.

No, it wasn’t a plague that brought physical discomfort or pain.

It was a plague that brought a feeling from the lack of something.

Then the Lord said to Moses,

“Stretch out your hand toward the sky so that darkness will spread over Egypt-darkness that can be felt.”

Exodus 10:21

I have to think that by this point in the series of plagues, a break from physical suffering would have felt like relief,

but there’s something very creepy about “a darkness that can be felt.”

The absence of light can be that powerful.

I’d say they could feel all the way to their bones.

 

Scriptures goes on to say that it was so dark that no one could see anyone else and for three days they were unable to even leave their homes.

That is what I call extreme darkness.

 

On top of this overwhelming darkness had to be overwhelming fear, because they didn’t know when it would end.

Each minute that ticked by with no sign of light had to be terrifying…….

 

But in the distance, could they see Goshen?

Small flecks of light danced in the homes of the Israelites.

Surely they could see this soft glow way, way off in the blackness around them and wish that somehow they could figure out a way to stumble toward it.

 

We live in a dark world.

Sometimes I think I can feel the darkness when I hear of men trying to abduct women in broad daylight.

Moms and dads hurting their own children.

Children killing their own parents.

Countries burning other countries flags.

Hate and anger rise up and snuff out the candle of peace every chance they can,

 

so……….

 

what do we do when darkness gets dark enough to feel??

 

That’s what I’ve been asking myself lately.

 

It’s so easy for me to “cave” to the darkness,

literally slip right into it and let it get the best of me.

Feel discouraged.

Defeated.

Hopeless.

Even angry that the world has become such a mess,

and life has gotten so complicated.

 

But every single time I do,

the devil wins.

 

So, how do I climb out of these feelings of despair?????

How do I see good in a world where simply changing the channel or walking down a school hallway reminds me that the good is not always easy to find?

 

The devil loves when we “feel the darkness” and can only sense a soft glow far in the distance, unreachable.

He loves to paralyze us in our fear.

 

 

I think Christians have one option in a dark world.

It’s not complicated, but it’s definitely a choice we have to make daily.

 

We have to be the light.

We have to keep each other’s embers glowing.

We have to remember that one light transforms a dark place.

 

One light.

 

One glow.

 

One candle.

 

One ember.

 

Darkness isn’t truly darkness anymore if we realize the power of our one light.

 

I hope that today you can enter whatever world it is that God has called you to………..

as a light.

 

 

A bright spot in a seemingly dark place.

 

If darkness can be felt,

so can light.

 

Allow someone to feel His presence today because you are there……..

bringing light.

 

Be Goshen today in a dark, dark world.