Sublime

This motif is ubiquitous in fairy tales and occurs no matter what, by hook or by crook. Nothing makes the light, the wonder, the treasure stand out so well as darkness. The “dark night of the soul” has almost become a catchphrase in certain parts of the culture. The recovery of the divine is done in the dark of Hel or Hades or “there.” The return o

Stories move in from the shadows to the limelight. And though the stage presents the drama of our powerlessness, the shadows offer the secret of our power.

“Et lux in tenebris lucet”—and the light shineth in the darkness.

in this dark world, where men and women were dying, where the poor were suffering, where injustice raged in a vast and violent empire, God became flesh and built some furniture.

our struggles are not separate from the luminous vastness within each of

as the Word is preached and people’s souls start straightening up and stretching toward heaven. Ideally, this process of watering happens in every part of church life: in small groups, classes, one-to-one conversations and counseling—at the heart of all the various ministries of a congregation of people who acknowledge the Bible as God’s Word that

Let there be pain, let there be suffering. Go through the dark night, and you will reach a beautiful sunrise. It is only in the womb of the dark night that the sun evolves. It is only through the dark night that the morning comes.

But ever and again, we look toward the east and discover that there is another light which shines even in the darkness, and “the spear of frustration” is transformed “into a shaft of light.”