Be a light in the darkest of places

[Listening2023]

Regarding this phrase in a Christian context, where would the darkest of places be? Initially I'm thinking where there's no concept of God or thought of?

Interesting question. I would suggest that the darkest of places is where God is not, ie there is total absence of God because God has been excluded, as discrete from no thought or concept of God.

I think despair is one of the darkest states to be in. So if you can help someone out of that it's life changing. Initially, general kindness and the actual practical help that is desperately needed is usually the best thing. Showing love rather than just talking about it.

Thanks @Thegreatestoftheseislove @meanderingbrook can you give examples?

Lol. My workplace 😂

Examples? Erm, volunteering with homeless charities, help getting people back on their feet so to speak,. Anything like that you think you might have an aptitude for. You will have to work within certain perimeters but certainly would be able offer practical help which can give people hope. Churches often are linked with charities to help various people in desperate need.

Elizabeth Fry's work suggested prison was a dark place which was helped by her light.

Helping those who are suffering (humans, animals).

Bring order wherever there is chaos. The Prayer of St Francis is a good starting point.

Lord, make me an instrument of your peace: where there is hatred, let me sow love; where there is injury, pardon; where there is doubt, faith; where there is despair, hope; where there is darkness, light; where there is sadness, joy.

Thanks everyone. Thank you for the prayer @Maatandosiris. ❤

There's a poem or piece of writing that I've been trying to find, without success, to try and illustrate part of what I was thinking: it's about how some parts of humankind have strived to removed God from our governments, law making, schools, care systems, all parts of society ... Any Christian (as your question was asking for a Christian context) living under God and placed into those situations where others have worked to actively exclude God, will be a little bit of light in that darkness.

Some individuals exist in the darkest of places, when they've chosen to exclude God from their lives and, as a limited example, who abuse animals, children, the defenceless, or who take a gun and randomly shoot schoolchildren, or who rape and murder.

War. Where you have two groups of humans( or more than 2) trying to destroy each other.

Anything that can bring peace to a war-like situation either on a small scale ( eg family feud) to a larger scale involving nations.

There are countries where religion, particularly Christianity but also Islam, is unacceptable and those are dark places to my mind.

Where?

@ganandoof North Korea springs to mind. Christians are actively persecuted and have to worship in secret. The charity Open Doors has lots of information on countries where Christians are persecuted.

I don't think organized religion ever offers light though, only war, dogma and oppression

I agree with you on a global scale but a local church can give people a community, it can offer friendship in times of loneliness .

I think the loss of a focus on a communal hub, similar beliefs, communal singing, ritual has been bad for society. I know humanists don’t like it but religion fulfils a vital roll in society it hard to replicate

To me it means - Sitting and empathising with someone when they are in a dark place. Maybe following a death or another traumatic event.

Or when someone hits rock bottom. When they realise whatever they were doing doesn’t actually work for them. Be it drugs or alcohol or being an abusive person etc. When they realise they are not the person they thought they were and the despair and despondence from that realisation. The light is the way out. As you rebuild self esteem, integrity and value. As you become the person you want to be. Follow the light out of the darkness. (I’m not religious btw).

I think Christianity and the community of church in earlier times (even the 1980s and 90s) stopped people feeling lonely. They had someone to talk to and could meet friends. Coffee mornings, speakers, bus tours etc. Singing in and evening or bell ringing groups Some put on jumble sales and domino or beetle drives. Now so many elderly are very, very lonely. It’s sad really and takes us back to despair and dark places.

Given the amount of abuse that goes on in them, that I've experienced first hand, conservative evangelical churches are horrifically dark places.

Also being that person who makes peoples worlds a bit brighter. The one who chats to a stranger, who smiles at the toddler whose baby is having a tantrum, who takes an extra couple of minutes to talk to a client or a customer. Who asks ‘how did your mum get on at hospital?’ Or stops to help a stranger pick up the shopping they just dropped. You may be the light in someone’s very dark and very bleak day. You may never know but you did it anyway, not for the accolade, but just because.

I had a few people do this when I was in an awful place and they will never know just how much their small gestures meant.

I hope I have been the light in someone’s darkness.

@Maatandosiris

True, but it's the grass roots that allow the corrupt wider organization to be so insidious and cause so much harm

Being a child getting bombed and shot at- and having a god sit by and watch.

A god who either doesn't care or can't be arsed to help..

Much worse than no god.

I think the message of Viktor Frankl in “Man’s Search for Meaning” has a lot to say here.

But that might purely depend on how god and his relationship to man has been defined by religion rather than the existence of a god

I doubt the grass roots consider such matters.,

@Maatandosiris

Rubbish. If there is a god, then he is unequivocally evil. He has the power to help and does not,

Why are Christians so intent on excusing their crazed god's literal evil? You wouldn't excuse a human who didn't help suffering children.

Honestly, why do you all make excuses?