If we celebrate the years behind us they become stepping stones of strength and joy for the years ahead.
"'For I know the plans I have for you,' declares the Lord, 'plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.'" Jeremiah 29:11
One time as a kid my parents took me to Cosmic Cavern near Branson. There was a fairly large group with us because they only had tours at certain times of the day. While we were all standing in line I started to talk to a girl about my age. She said she and her family had been there before and she just begged them to take her back. "It was that good." She matter-or-factly said.
By now my interest had really been stirred.
When the tour opened and we stepped into the mouth of the cave the first thing I noticed was the temperature difference. It was cold. Outside it was a blistering summer day. But step two feet into the cave and it felt like a brisk winter morning. Your eyes take a bit to adjust to the surroundings as well. They have lights strung all around the cave and up and down the stairs, but they give off strange shadows. Almost unnatural shadows. In the brightness of day, everything has one shadow. In the artificially lit cave, everything had multiple shadows because of so many light sources.
There were stalactites and stalagmites. Limestone walls and quartz on the ground and as the tour guide was telling us all of these things the one thing that kept going through my mind was the number of shadows I had. I became a bit obsessed with it. If I stood this way I had three. If I turned that way, I had four. I'm not sure why it made so much difference to my mind, but it did.
When we got to the bottom of the cave the tour guide gathered us around in a circle and asked us to hold hands. "No one move or take a step in any direction," she said. "Just listen to my voice." Then she nodded her head to some invisible gremlin and suddenly all the lights went out.
And then there was darkness. Night upon night and black upon black. I had never before in my life experienced such an unnerving experience. And suddenly I knew why the shadows had bothered me so. Because in my subconscious I had realized there was no sun. The further we went into the cavern the more shadows I had gathered. And now as I stood at the bottom with the lights completely gone and nothing but darkness and cold, I decided that this was definitely not one of my most favorite places. And I would not be asking to come back again.
Sometimes in life the shadows start to surround us. The further we get away from the light of God's goodness the more dark things we tend to pick up. They spread and attach as shadows on our souls until finally, one day, nothing remains but the dark and the cold. I can tell you I was so very relieved when the tour guide asked for the lights to be turned back on. And in my mind I leapt for joy as we started to go up the stairs and the number of shadows I was casting started to diminish. Then I was out of the cave, standing in the hotness of a summer day and all the shadows were at the right angles.
Whatever is pulling you into the darkness today, step back up into the light. Let God's love surround you and feel the greatness of life, not just lived, but lived graciously.
Let us pray. Dear God. Help us to see beauty where we might be tempted to see ugliness, in ourselves, as well as in others. And may your "joy" be found there as well. In Christ's name we pray. Amen.
TROY CONRAD IS PASTOR OF FARMINGTON UNITED METHODIST CHURCH
General News on 08/27/2014