Afraid of the Light

Scripture

This is the verdict: light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.  (John 3:19-21 NIV)

Afraid of the Light

We have a Nova Scotia tartan displayed on our front lawn to help us connect to the sorrow felt by so many in the face of the massive murder spree last weekend. Lots of questions and speculation around it all but deep pain is at the centre.

A criminal profiler speculated that perhaps the perpetrator will turn out to have been a “grievance collector” and the accumulation of grievances nursed in the dark centre of his life exploded into this violence and mayhem. If that is true it is also a warning to me and any of us who hold grievances – our society has a grievance collection quality to it.

Collecting can be a wonderful thing – art collectors enrich us all when they lend what they have collected to be seen by the rest of us in public settings. But private collecting of grievance and anger, in the darkness of our inner person leads nowhere constructive.

If we find ourselves thinking about grievances (maybe replaying angering moments in our minds) then perhaps we need a dose of cleansing light shed on them. If they need resolving, deal with them as Christ calls us to do. Maybe just releasing them as he also demonstrated in his life is also better than letting them fester in the dark.

A Prayer for Today

God of love and mercy, we think of the hundreds of family and friends grieving the loss of loved ones, not just in public tragedy, but in isolation and alone with this pandemic. Help us open ourselves to your light to be liberated from grievances that only hurt us and when left to fester cause us to damage others. …. For Jesus’ sake