Light Up My Darkness

For you will light my lamp. The Lord, my God, will light up my darkness. 

✙ Ps. 18:28 ✙

I think today's beautiful little verse means more to us than we usually let it... perhaps even more than we usually want it to. Even the most boring or lethargic among us lead lives that are too busy for God. Reading the Bible, praying, or meditating on "godly" subjects are things all people of faith know we ought to be doing. It's just that we have better things to do. A lot of that is going to work or school, shopping, doing errands, volunteering—even for religious causes—or simply running around visiting or taking care of our daily business. And when we're not out-and-about, we have housework, television, social media, etc.

Things are different right now. Running around—certainly going out unnecessarily, but for most of us even working and going to school—has been taken off the table. We're stuck at home. And we're finding that there's only so much TV we can watch, and so much nonsense to "like" on Facebook. We're suddenly realizing that there's been an emptiness underlying all we've been doing, a darkness that we're only just now noticing. And it is that very emptiness that God desires to fill, that darkness that needs the light of God.

A pandemic is certainly a bad thing. But sometimes the "down time" it brings can be a blessing... if we use it to get closer to and rely on God.

When I run out of things to do, Lord, when emptiness yawns before me, thank you that you are still there, waiting for me. When my flame is extinguished, thank you that you light my lamp. In the Name of Jesus Christ, who taught me to pray: Our Father...