Last month, I had the privilege of teaching a few breakout sessions on theology at a summer youth festival. The theme of the weekend was “Light in the Darkness,” so the theology sessions were meant to follow the light throughout God’s story, from Creation and the fall, to Jesus as the Light of the Word, to the Spirit lighting the flame for us to carry in a dark and dying world. I challenged listeners to fight against the dark by creating beauty, whatever that looks like for them, and ended with my own offering of beauty. Here’s the spoken word I wrote in stolen moments of quiet trying to find decent coffee somewhere on site when our pitch lost electricity:
At first, nothing
Just a stillness and waiting
For… something
Then creation
Knowing and being in time
I wonder:
Did it happen in a sudden burst of light?
Like a cosmic match striking
Against the reverberation of a voice -
Or did it dawn slowly and steadily?
Lifted by a gentle whisper of a song
Coaxing molecules together
In form and order
Until everything that came to be
Teemed with life
The Spirit hovered and told us
We were creatures destined for the sun
And we walked in the immortal
Invisible light
But darkness called
And cast a shadow over
Goodness and beauty
A single question convinced us
We were made for more
As if there was anything more to be had
Than everything we could see
In fear we hide
In chaos we take comfort
In darkness we are trapped
We forgot the truth
We were creatures destined for the sun
And we fell in love with a lie
Entering the gate that demanded
Abandonment of hope
Can the dawn break the lock on the gate?
Or are we doomed to eternal twilight?
Has the glory departed this place for good?
Listen. The story isn’t over.
Deep darkness can’t cover the great light
Sure as the dawn, he is coming
Our golden king
The Word that lights our path
The dayspring carrying creation
Through its birth pains
Sure as the dawn, he is coming
Our golden king
He smooths over the worries we catastrophize
He binds up wounds we cauterize
He renews our will as we cast our eyes
Sure as the dawn, he is coming
Our golden king
So though we walk in deep darkness
We will not be afraid
We will speak the light to a dying world:
That the Spirit of Truth has lit the flame
By its burning light we can claim
We are creatures destined for the sun
And we walk towards the immortal
Invisible light
Hopeful Wanderer 