The Light of the Lord in Lockdown

While the sun has been shining brightly in most parts of the UK over the past few weeks, for many people the isolation of lockdown is proving to be a very dark experience. Perhaps it is emotionally dark because you are grieving a bereaved love one at a distance from family and there was no opportunity to say goodbye. Perhaps it is psychologically dark because the isolation is exasperating your depression or some other mental health problem. Some are facing the terrifying darkness of being locked down with an abuser who they cannot escape (if so please seek help - see the note at the bottom of the page). For others, having too much time to think allows a bad conscience, regrets about the past, and fears about the future to magnify at a time when it is not just your friends and your pastor who are at a distance - God seems out of reach too. For you it is a spiritually dark place.

Suffering in any way is a dark experience which, in a biblical worldview, can always be traced back to ‘sin’ in one way or another. Sometimes it is the effect of our own wrong doing or because  other people are doing wrong to us. But often it is not directly linked to any specific guilt. Rather it is because in a sinful world our minds and our bodies are vulnerable to damage and sickness. Or perhaps it is because ‘sin’ has had all kinds of influence on the circumstances we find ourselves in.

Over against the darkness of sin God is portrayed as the God of Light. He is the source of all that is good and all that is light. It is hard to understand why He doesn’t just turn the lights on instantly and fix everything. The Bible does not give a full explanation because it involves the unfathomable wisdom and knowledge of God. But one big part of the answer is that He has made his light shine into the world only through Jesus Christ, His incarnate Son. It is through looking to Jesus by faith that God’s light penetrates the spiritual darkness of our sin-saturated lives. One way the Bible describes a Christian life is “walking in the light” - the light of confession and turning from sin, the light of forgiveness through trusting Jesus, the light of God’s truth as the Holy Spirit brings the Scriptures into our hearts. Heaven is a place which needs no sun or moon because the Lord Himself is the only light necessary to expel all darkness for all of eternity!

Heaven might be the light at the end of the tunnel but life can still feel like a journey through a long dark cave. Other forms of darkness do not immediately lift just because you become a Christian. Suffering can continue in different ways - the darkness of persecution and abuse, the darkness of spiritual conflict, the darkness of illness and death. Every one who helps resist these things is a gift from God - doctors, police, government, pastors and Christian friends. But as human beings they too, to a greater or lesser extent, are living through the same kind of ‘night’.

So how do we navigate the darkness? By trusting a guide who has already made the journey successfully. On a recent holiday we visited the flood-lit White Scar Show Caves in Yorkshire. At the deepest part of the cave our guide explained that part of his training involved entering the cave alone. Without warning his instructor turned off the flood lights and he had to find his way out to the cave entrance, 1 mile away, in the pitch black. Jesus has made the journey through the infinite darkness of hell and death, rising into the light of eternal life at His resurrection, then ascending above the clouds into the unbroken sunshine of God’s immediate presence. He did this so that

“If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

And the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day, for darkness

Is as light with you” (Psalm 139:11-12).

Note: none of this means that you should stay in a dark place on your own if there are opportunities to escape. Rather we trust God in the darkness but also make use of what He provides to alleviate our suffering. That means seeking a doctor to help with medical problems like depression, a pastor to help with spiritual needs etc. If you are experiencing any form of domestic abuse at the present moment please be aware that you ARE allowed to break social distancing restrictions to get to safety. You can always seek help from your GP and some pharmacies allow use of their private counselling rooms as a safe place from which to make a phone call to domestic abuse helplines. If you are uncertain whether what you are experiencing is abuse or  if you need advice about what you can do and what help is available for you, the Refuge National Domestic Abuse Helpline Number is 0808 2000 247.

(See ‘Lasting Through a Long Lockdown’ here).