Thursday

This morning I hit the road around 6:30 AM. It was still quite dark. The sky was dark. I could just make out the road in front of me. The headlights from cars were blinding. Of course, I ducked off to the side of the road when they passed. As I was running, I experienced the darkness of the night turning into the light of day. It is kind of a weird time of day. For me, it almost seems like the darkness is lifting. It is so gradual and yet at moments it seems like brightness increases in much more rapid spurts. The amazing part is to be outside - not in a car or in the house - but outside immersed in it. Trees and houses begin to take shape. The path ahead becomes clear. The black sky turns to grey to dusty blue and then finally blue. In church, we sometimes sing
Marvelous Light:

Into marvelous light I'm running
Out of darkness out of shame
By the cross you are the truth
You are the life You are the way

This is what I kept singing this morning as the darkness turned into light or the light overtook the darkness...

Into marvelous light I'm running... over and over and over again.

And the darkness dissipated and was overpowered by the light.

The crazy thing is that this happened just a few minutes later at the pool. We are the first people into the pool each day and so when we first get into the water it is still dark. Then the lights gradually turn on and the water becomes sparkly blue. These events just really struck me today. Why? Because it is so easy to let the darkness encompass and yet there is a way out and the light overwhelms the darkness. Even when I was in Vermont and experienced complete darkness, the smallest flashlight beam penetrated the darkness. It was a amazing to take this into the workday. The light overwhelmed so much of the darkness that had been lurking in my soul this week. It vanquished the darkness.