The Darkest Hour

The Darkest Hour
Norris, Cloister, p. 95


"The value of this great songbook of the Bible lies not in the fact that singing praises can alleviate pain, but that the painful images we find there are essential for praise, that without them, praise is meaningless."

The darker the night, the brighter the light; the deeper the pain, the greater the gratitude for relief; the dirtier the house the more the rejoicing when again it shines clean. Those on whom the lights have never gone out may to some degree praise the light, those who have never stumbled and fallen in the mud flat on their face with the whole world and God looking on may to some degree be thankful for the beauty and purity of their life. Those who have never lost certainly celebrate their continual winnings. But when your world goes into eclipse and you can’t see your way, when you’ve been betrayed by someone dear to you, when you have lost job, loved ones, home, and self-esteem, when these have smitten you sore and then somehow, surprisingly it is all redeemed, cleansed, and reinvigorated, you know joy unspeakable. You sense overwhelming gratitude. You rejoice in an extravaganza of celebration. The highest praise comes from those who have moved through the lowest depths.

Failure, reverses, negativities, these are part of ordinary human experience. I have had two friends who told me they had no experience of the down side of life. One, the most popular student during his college years, said that he had never had any troubles in his life at all, not any kind. Twenty years later cancer struck his beloved, vibrant wife, and he joined the human race. Another friend, a fifty-year-old corporate vice-president, surprised me one day by saying that he had no experience of depression of any kind, ever in his life. Ten years later he was fired, unjustly, and went into deep depression for years. The human lot caught up with him.

Pollyanna’s attitude is not Christian. The biblical writings don’t allow us to think that there is a bright side to everything and that we should always be positive. Despair, failure, shame, betrayal, laments, and all other sorts of darknesses permeate the pages of the Christian scriptures. Review the stories of David, Jeremiah, Peter and Paul. Remember the story of Jesus. Realize through it all the wounded heart of the creator God who had graced the world with richness and beauty of resources, a world now corrupted and sliding downhill in ever more furious self-destruction. The Bible knows the world as it actually exists for real people.

The good news is not that all is good, but that all can be redeemed. The corrupt can be cleansed, the lost can be found, the separated can be reconciled. For those willing to acknowledge their darkness and turn to God’s light, "the darkest hour is just before the dawn."