I spent years trying to climb out of my darkness. God kept pushing me back down. Thought He hated me. Then I realized He was drowning me in it on purpose. Like baptism but backwards. Under the black water something grows that can't grow in sunlight. Seeds need soil not sky. I kept reaching for transcendence He kept shoving me into my shadow. Now I understand. The light that matters doesn't come from escaping darkness it comes from darkness eating itself alive until only light remains. God doesn't want me to transcend my darkness He wants my darkness to birth something luminous. I am not climbing out of the pit I am becoming the fire that burns at the bottom of it. The real light grows in places where ordinary light dies
I spent years trying to climb out of my darkness. God kept pushing me back down. Thought He hated me. Then I realized He was drowning me in it on purpose. Like baptism but backwards. Under the black water something grows that can't grow in sunlight. Seeds need soil not sky. I kept reaching for transcendence He kept shoving me into my shadow. Now I understand. The light that matters doesn't come from escaping darkness it comes from darkness eating itself alive until only light remains. God doesn't want me to transcend my darkness He wants my darkness to birth something luminous. I am not climbing out of the pit I am becoming the fire that burns at the bottom of it. The real light grows in places where ordinary light dies
we could say that the light can only be discovered in the dark.
David Tacey • The Darkening Spirit: Jung, spirituality, religion
Like the transformation of a caterpillar into a butterfly, it may take a long time of darkness and struggle until we emerge beautified, and it may not be until the very end of our journeys this side of eternity. But it will be more than worth it.
John Mark Comer • Practicing the Way: Be with Jesus. Become like him. Do as he did.
It seems that in the spiritual world, we do not really find something until we first lose it, ignore it, miss it, long for it, choose it, and personally find it again—but now on a new level. Three
Richard Rohr • Falling Upward
Many of us have spent too much time chasing the light only to find more darkness. “One does not become enlightened by imagining figures of light,” said Jung, “but by making the darkness conscious.”
Deborah Ford • The Dark Side of the Light Chasers
The truth is, we’re all so disconnected from our spirituality that we’ve forgotten who we truly are. We wander through life, searching for meaning and purpose, unaware of the divine spark that resides within each of us.