“…The difficult thing about darkness as an essential part of life is that we can know this fact intellectually but run from it emotionally [or as I’m want to say in those moment, “My heart hasn’t yet caught up with my head!” – Paul]. All we care about is getting rid of the dreadful experience, moving on [and] feeling good again [sadly too often reinforced by the ignorance of those who take it upon themselves to decide when its time to tell those in darkness that “its time to move on!” And the wise choose not to listen to them, and thus decide to continue facing into the darkness and not run from it until its gifts are unwrapped – Paul]. When darkness descends upon the human heart we spend most of our energy doing battle with it rather than befriending it and seeing what gift it … might be offering us…
…Out of [the] deep, stirring questions of darkness, we can be led to a clearer awareness regarding our strengths and weaknesses. They can give us a new vision about the “way life is,” helping us to discover greater inner freedom to be who we are meant to be. The questions of darkness can gift us with a willingness to live with insecurity and to find deeper joy in the things of life we assume will always be there for us.
In a sense the darkness forces us inward. We can try to sit the darkness out, or withdraw into ourselves, [or we continue feeding our self-absorption and satisfying our thirst for self-gratification, both of which underpin a decision to run away from the darkness; to remain distracted; to fill our lives with what will ultimately never help us to grow up, and to preference shallowness, superficiality and the ultimately unsatisfying over and against the invitations to depth, interiority, freedom, and wholeness – Paul] …
…Even though we must accept and befriend darkness as part of the cycle of growth, we must not totally give into it… Accepting and befriending darkness is like allowing someone to live in our house for a while but being very emphatic and clear that this is only a visit and not a permanent residence…
… We cannot simply withdraw and give all of our resources to darkness. We must hold our own ground, stand up to darkness, and not let the visitor push us around. If we allow darkness to take over our dwelling completely it can be extremely harmful and dangerous, rather than growthful, for us…
…As we walk in the land of darkness in our hearts, there are two truths which must be consistently held close to our hearts. The first is that darkness can be an opportunity for growth. Secondly, a day will come when the darkness will dissipate and the light will take over again… “
- Joyce Rupp.
Part 1 here.
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