Light In A Dark Place

Holding On To Hope.

Introduction

Have you ever thought about what it truly means to be kept in solitary confinement? This is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single cell with little or no contact with other people. Solitary confinement is intentionally designed to punish you physically; it is also designed to break you mentally. For many of you reading this, you wouldn’t have gone to prison physically but you would have felt like it mentally. You aren’t surrounded by four concrete walls for 24 hours in a day yet you have still experienced the confinement of mental darkness that is in the likeness of a prisoner in a maximum security holding unit. How is it that two completely different physical circumstances can result in the same internal experience for a human being? Furthermore, there are people who are in physical solitary confinement who ironically aren’t consumed by darkness and mental confinement any longer. They have found freedom and forgiveness through faith even though their earthly judgement has been set in stone.

I have never been to jail but there have been times where I felt like I was locked up. My internal reality totally contradicted my external experiences. But like the physical prisoners who found spiritual freedom, the solution remained the same for me. Whether it be on a large scale or on a small scale, the principle of darkness cannot exist without light. You aren’t defined by your experience of solitary confinement but rather your experience of the light you’re able to see within that confinement. If you’re in a dark place, if you have come out of a dark place, or if you know someone in a dark place; this letter is for you.

The Place Where Hope Is Lost

Whether it be a literal or metaphorical prison cell you find yourself in, this is the place the world knows as where hope is lost. If you watch the news you’d feel that way with all the doom and gloom projected by the media. If you have a family member who’s terminally ill you’d feel that way if you’re told by the doctors that there isn’t a cure to save your loved one. If you’ve been sentenced to jail, once the judge slams their wooden hammer the thing called hope that you held on to ceases to exist. The point I am trying to emphasise is this: the physical realm of life is truly the place where hope is lost. Therefore for hope to remain it has to be eternally self-existing, it has to be solution providing, it has to be light bearing, and it has to exist outside of sight.

The Place Where Hope Is Found

This is the place where you are to place your faith in spite of the darkness you find yourself in. When I found myself searching for hope, I found myself searching for God. Hope and God became synonymous because neither seemed to exist in the “real world”. This is good news because like a prisoner who finds light in the dark of his prison cell, you can find hope outside your realm of confinement. I couldn’t understand how I could place my faith in the unexperienced reality of peace and freedom; yet I still hoped for it. That was when I realised that we were designed to hope and designed to look for light. Furthermore the world was also designed with intentional points of references that point to light in the midst of darkness.

And God said, Let there be LIGHTS in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for SIGNS, and for seasons, and for days, and years: And let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth: and it was so. And GOD MADE TWO GREAT LIGHTS; the greater light to rule the day, and the lesser light to rule the night: he made the stars also. And God set them in the firmament of heaven to give light upon the earth, And to rule over the day and over the night, and to divide the light from the darkness: and God saw that it was GOOD.

Genesis 1: 14-18

I cited this passage to highlight the first thing that stood out to me when I read it. When the sun reflects on the moon every night you are left with a consistent reminder that the day is soon approaching. That is how intentional God is in reminding you that he is there and he isn’t going anywhere. His character is reflected through his creation.

The Value Of Light

The beauty of the dark is that it emphasises the value of the light. For most people, this value isn’t ever appreciated until you truly experience the valley of the shadow of death. If you’re able to see the light in the midst of such an experience then you will know how valuable it is. Like the sun and the moon illustrated in Genesis, there will be several reminders in your life that serve as points of references to the light of God. It could be the birth of a Child you see everyday or even the air you breathe after suffering a health scare. These reminders can never be consumed by the darkness around you which shows you how powerful light is. I write this so you know that if you’re thinking of giving up and losing hope, that little glimmer of light in your life has already rejected the possibility of a defeated outcome.

The references of light are signals pointing you to the true light. The light that is received by God’s grace through faith in him. He created light in the very beginning and remains the source of hope in the darkness of this world. The man in the prison cell found hope in some sort of supernatural light despite being sentenced mercilessly in the dark. This taught me two things that I want you to remember as you reflect on this letter.

1. There is a light that exists outside of the darkness of this world. That same source brought light into this world.

2. There is mercy that exists outside of the judgement of this world. That same mercy triumphs over judgement if you believe that it's for you.

There was a man sent from God, whose name was John. This man came for a witness, to bear witness of the Light, that all through him might believe. He was not that Light, but was sent to bear witness of that Light. That was the true Light which gives light to every man coming into the world.

John 1:6-9

Hold on to the hope.