{"id":8030,"date":"2014-07-29T11:59:13","date_gmt":"2014-07-29T18:59:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=8030"},"modified":"2014-07-29T11:59:13","modified_gmt":"2014-07-29T18:59:13","slug":"learning-to-walk-in-the-dark","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/learning-to-walk-in-the-dark\/","title":{"rendered":"Learning to Walk in the Dark"},"content":{"rendered":"

Learning to Walk in the Dark<\/strong>
\nBy the Rev. Paul Graves<\/em><\/p>\n


\n\u201cThen I said to myself, \u2018Oh, he even sees me in the dark!
\nAt night I\u2019m immersed in the light!\u2019
\nIt\u2019s a fact: darkness isn\u2019t dark to you;
\nnight and day, darkness and light, they\u2019re all the same to you.\u201d<\/em>
\n-Psalm 139:11-12 (The Message)<\/strong>
\n<\/center>
\nThis awe-filled affirmation from the writer of Psalm 139 begs a question for me: If darkness and light are the same to God, why are we so afraid of the dark?<\/p>\n

The fear of darkness both assaults and seeps into our culture. Our biblical history and religious rituals reinforce a blanket condemnation of darkness as \u201cevil\u201d, as \u201csin\u201d. So we spend our religious efforts grasping for ways to live \u201cin the light\u201d. <\/p>\n

Barbara Brown Taylor even suggests we try to create a \u201cfull solar church\u201d! In her very exciting and soul-challenging 2014 book, \u201cLearning to Walk in the Dark\u201d<\/a>, Taylor takes on the multiple ways we deny the very existence of darkness.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

\u201cI call it \u2018full solar spirituality\u2019, since it focuses on staying in the light of God around the clock, both absorbing and reflecting the sunny side of faith.”<\/p>\n

“You can usually recognize a full solar church by its emphasis on the benefits of faith, which include a sure sense of God\u2019s presence, certainty of belief, divine guidance in all things, and reliable answers to prayers. Members strive to be positive in attitude, firm in conviction, helpful in relationship, and unwavering in faith. This sounds like heaven on earth.”<\/p>\n

“Who would not like to dwell in God\u2019s light 24\/7?\u201d (Taylor, p. 7-8)<\/em><\/p>\n

But no one can do this, not even the most \u201cspiritual\u201d among us! So when darkness is mentioned in one of its many apparently sinister forms, we try to chase the evil, dark boogey-men away with our prayers, incantations, and well-intended denial.<\/p>\n

Yet once again, Psalm 139 confronts us with \u201cIt\u2019s a fact: darkness isn\u2019t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they\u2019re all the same to you.\u201d How in the name of the prince of darkness can that be? Could it be that all this time, \u201cdarkness\u201d has gotten a very bad reputation?<\/p>\n

Barbara Brown Taylor certainly thinks so. Countless spiritual leaders from most major world religions have thought so (including Jesus, folks!). Could it be that the \u201cevil\u201d called darkness is another form of religious manipulation put in place because:<\/p>\n

1) primitive spirituality honestly thought of darkness as the absence of God; and <\/p>\n

2) centuries of religious leaders in all religions found and still find darkness a great tool to keep their power by scaring their followers?<\/p>\n

If you have any desire to learn so much more about the healing qualities of darkness \u2013 both around you and inside you — please consider buying \u201cLearning to Walk in the Dark.\u201d I found it an almost can\u2019t-put-down book. <\/p>\n

Taylor shares powerful reflections and commentaries about the \u201cfriendly power\u201d of darkness. She shares incredible stories of the dark– like her experience in Atlanta some years ago, going through an interactive exhibit called \u201cDialogue in the Dark\u201d. <\/p>\n

She and a limited number of people spent time in total darkness, guided only by a blind guide, Dolores. She learned much about her fears of the dark and the power of her spirit in the dark in that encounter. <\/p>\n

Later in the book, she tells an extensive and powerful story of being guided through parts of the 40-mile Organ Cave in West Virginia. Her guides again gave her an opportunity to engage her inner God-spirit within the darkest darkness she had ever known. <\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s mastery of poetic, metaphorical language also opened up my own curiosity about darkness as a friend in ways I am eager to explore further. <\/p>\n

I invite you to challenge your own fear of the dark through this book. Paradoxically, I think it light up your life!<\/p>\n

\n

The Rev. Paul Graves serves as the chair for the Conference Council on Older Adult Ministries for the PNWUMC.<\/em><\/center><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Learning to Walk in the Dark By the Rev. Paul Graves \u201cThen I said to myself, \u2018Oh, he even sees me in the dark! At night I\u2019m immersed in the light!\u2019 It\u2019s a fact: darkness isn\u2019t dark to you; night and day, darkness and light, they\u2019re all the same to you.\u201d -Psalm 139:11-12 (The Message) […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":8031,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[111,142,115],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8030","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-channels","8":"category-older-adult-ministries","9":"category-resources"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/IDEAS_NurturingElders.jpg?fit=700%2C357&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-25w","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8030"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8035,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8030\/revisions\/8035"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8031"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8030"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8030"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8030"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}