All Is Well: The message of the Light Bearer

“Why is the devil so mean?” she asked me. “How can someone hate God this much…” I could hear the pain in her question. She had just caught a child before committing suicide. Every detail had been thought of and every step completed, just the act itself, moments away. The child wanted to end it all because of the terror of possibly reliving the trauma experienced last year. The sexual abuse had occurred right around Christmas time and the flashbacks haunt present reality. It became too much. The darkness suffocating all hope.

“What gets you out of the bed in the mornings?” He asked. “Why do you wake up?” These questions sent right after a photo of his bloody face. He just got out of the hospital the other day. Most of his life has been this way. Violence, death & hopelessness. A child who has seen more evil in his short life than many men have seen in a lifetime. Although never trained to be a soldier, his life has been a bloody, dangerous, and very real battlefield. He wrestles with this reality. He wrestles with the small hope barely alive in his heart whispering that he could leave the violence and live in freedom.

Her mom passed away when she was in sixth grade. Last month was the anniversary and she’s been struggling. One night this week, she felt so much weight pressing down on her. She reached out to her mentor and went on a drive under a starry sky. She silently, desperately asked God for a shooting star – a sign that He could see her. Hot tears rolling down her face, she listens to a love song:

I’ll be by your side

Wherever you fall

In the dead of night

Whenever you call

Please don’t fight these hands that are holding you

My hands are holding you

(By Your Side by Tenth Avenue North)

She looks up at the night sky, heart breaking all over again and then she sees it. Another shooting star.

 

I’m sitting in a dimly lit room facing my Christmas tree. It’s full of white lights and gold ornaments and when I gaze at it, I just feel such a sense of peace. All is well my heart sighs. And I can’t for the life of me figure out how it’s possible to be amid so much darkness yet have access to this peace – this audacious promise beating steadily in my heart.

It makes no sense and yet... In the face of deep, senseless pain, this heart faithfully, steadily beating: All is well.

It was a dark night when the angels appeared on a quiet hill inhabited by lonely shepherds. It was a bright lone star that guided the wise men through the cold, dark nights. It was in a dark, musty room that baby Jesus’s first cry was heard.

The days were dark. Oppression and fear, rampant. Poverty and despair, constant. A people breathlessly waiting for a promise to be fulfilled.

And into this dark space, the Savior enters like a shooting star against an ink black sky. 

Amidst the uncertainty, the injustice, and the pain, Jesus arrives.

Circumstances had not changed on the day of His birth and yet the angels proclaimed with authority:

Glory to God in the highest heaven,

and on earth peace to those on whom His favor rests (Luke 2: 14).

How can peace exist in the midst of painful and senseless suffering?

What feeds this peace and fans the flame of the small flickering light amidst the oppressive darkness?

Hope.

This audacious promise: All is well – exists because of hope.

This hope can burn so fiercely, it feels like it will consume us. And we are driven to action - the mission to spread its light to those around us like wildfire. Effectively destroying strongholds of darkness.

Hope can glow warmly in comfort and lull to sleep. We hold each other and speak softly to one another, allowing the glow to soothe the ache of disappointment or grief.

Hope can beam brightly like the sunrise and cause songs of joy. We are pulled to it and lift our faces to drink in its glory.

Hope lights up. Hope directs. Hope inspires. Hope is our essence. Hope brings life. Hope nourishes. Hope heals.

We have this hope. Like a small flickering light in the overwhelming darkness. We cling to it. We abide in it. And as we hold fast to this hope, there is a healing that begins to slowly permeate through even the worst wounds.

Living among the broken, I exist in the trenches of this battlefield between light & dark. Over the years of fighting, I’ve come to realize that this messy place is holy ground.

 There have been many heavy, dark and pain-filled stories I’ve heard throughout the years. 

It is soul crushing. 

But I’ve realized that in taking on the name of Christ, I am also taking on His heart.

And God’s heart is zealously invested in bringing healing to the broken.

Every heart is sacred. Every wound received, an assault. The healing process is always something that must be approached humbly as though in the presence of Holiness. Because the act of healing is holy. The act of healing is necessary. It is our calling as light bearers. 

So I keep marching steadily, matching my pace to the faithful beat of my heart’s whisper All is well. 

God goes before me. He is clearing the path so I can step into the darkness with this hope burning in my chest, clearing more ground for His glorious Kingdom of Light.

Sometimes it glows. Sometimes it burns so bright, I feel it will consume me. This hope is the fuel in advancing the Kingdom of God. My defense against the oppressive darkness always threatening to consume.

With every broken heart I face, this hope burns brighter and I step forward – into the darkness before me. We will not give into defeat, I proclaim into the brokenness. Darkness will not win. 

Hope makes us bold.

All is well because God is here. His presence, a light so powerful, we cannot take it all in. Yet He has poured some of it into each of us, His light bearers.

He has called us to this transcendent hope and, amidst the darkness, this hope calls us to action:

Arise, shine, for your light has come,

and the glory of the Lord rises upon you.

See, darkness covers the earth

and thick darkness is over the peoples,

but the Lord rises upon you

and his glory appears over you.

(Isaiah 60:1,2)

Fellow light bearers.

Let us go forth with our hope-filled heart burning bright. 

Let us illuminate the dark circumstances around us and bring the healing so desperately needed, in the name of Jesus. 

Let’s set the world on fire.