Darkness before Dawn
‘Who among you fears the Lord and obeys the word of His servant? Let him who walks in the dark, who has no light, trust in the name of the Lord and rely on Him.’ (IS 50: 10)
While Michael Sam, the first gay NFL player to be drafted, cavorted on the global stage with his boyfriend, we gathered for our Living Waters Training. Men and women, Catholics and Protestants, broken people who without Jesus would be enslaved to either gender, entered into the river of blood and water that makes all things new.
We gathered with a new urgency around the Cross, trusting that the Crucified God would calm the dark currents swirling around us and somehow, in our repentance, take us deeper into His heart for His Church. We were not disappointed.
The Holy Spirit fell on us immediately. Though divided by regions and diverse Christian traditions, God united us as we got low and listened together for His still small voice. All of us had been deafened by the din of powerful, media-driven lies–false assumptions about the nature of homosexuality and marriage, and what constitutes sexual liberty. The good news? God woke us up to the fact that we can overcome darkness by heeding His voice.
A wiseman writes: ‘When the wind howls and the doors and windows clatter, one can hardly hear at all…if you will hear the voice of God, that Fatherly word whispered in the inmost depths of your soul, you must become deaf to all the roar of the world without and hush all the voices within. You must yield yourself up like a meek and gentle sheep, confess your sins, and all humbly hushed and quieted, hearken to this voice of God.’
We, the training group, had no time or strength to defend ourselves from each other. The irrational, virulent rise of idolatry in our world reduced us to Jesus: to listening together for His healing Word, and fighting for the healing of a generation who may be lost to perversion unless we manifest the Merciful Creator who can redeem all.
Note to self: those who witness the deception of a Michael Sam and respond only with disgust contribute to his cause. Sam has become the new sexual underdog for a generation who will defend anyone from such sneering.
I want to do more than sneer: I want to live the good news that Jesus reconciles us to our real selves in exchange for powerful lies. The world is shrouded in darkness and we make it worse by only cursing that darkness. Darkness ends in death. We who embody His new life must shine like lights as we hold out that Life to others. We must clarify the One to whom the deceived can repent before death takes away their choice.
That is serious business: a matter of eternal life or death.
At our training, God purified our interior ‘lamps’ through reducing us to One Voice, One Cross, and One Church. I discerned that those who refuse to gather with the saints will be scattered and become prey to the father of lies. The Holy Spirit is uniting us and giving us abundant Life. Through a humbled and renewed people, God wants to dawn for those living in darkness.
‘But now all you who light fires and provide yourselves with torches, go, walk in the light of your fires and of the torches you have set ablaze. This is what you shall receive from God’s hand: you will lie down in torment.’ (IS 50: 11)
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