The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;

the darkness cold not put it out.

John 1:5

It seems like we live in a time of darkness ascendant, when the worst excesses of our natures come out to be glorified. Our current president just embodies this drive, but he didn’t invent it and if it wasn’t there, he wouldn’t have been elected.

In his book Counterfeit Gods, Timothy Keller talks about how we idolize good things: family, country, working, earning money. Things that we should value, yes — but not above all else. When one thing comes comes to define who you are, your value, the meaning of your life, that thing has gone from being one good thing among many to being an idol.

It feels like right now we’ve agreed as a culture to embrace the darkness in our hearts. We reject those in need, those different from us, those we don’t understand. We accept selfishness, greed, inequality, and all manner of ills stemming from the Me First approach.

Today’s verse, part of the beginning of the Advent season, reminds me to things: One, I have that light in me, and it is meant to blaze. What does that look like in my life? And, two, although things look terrible dark now, the light wins in the end. That doesn’t mean we stop struggling; it means there’s hope.

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