DARKNESS, QUESTIONS, POETRY AND SPIRITUAL HOPE

This writing was by far my favorite thing I have read this semester. It was not only an interesting read, but it is very applicable to my everyday life. It is not just a good story but something that is important if I desire to live a life full of joy and victory over the darkness of life.

Too often I feel as though Christians put themselves in a box where they think no pain or sorrow can reach them. When something actually happens they immediately go to that place of asking, God where are you when my world is falling apart? Cliche Christian sayings are of no value when you are actually faced with hardships. When things happen our way of thinking changes...where we once used to say, God is so good, "he is in heaven...in my heart...he is everywhere" we now say God where are you when I actually need you? I thought you were good...etc. Professor Corrigan quoted, "One can never understand what hope is really about unless one wrestles with despair." Faith is the same...why would you need to have faith if there was no room to doubt?

I really like how Professor Corrigan said that " The practice of facing darkness is an exercise in 'go sell everything you have and follow me' where we lose our false religious hope and find an authentic hope in the God of truth beyond answers. It is also an exercise in 'take up your cross daily and follow me.'Laurence Freeman points out that in the gospels Jesus is more interested in living questions--'follow me'--than in finding answers." We have to get to the place where we are okay with not getting an answer to why we are going through the darkness. It is all about trust. Jesus did promise us in Hebrews 13:5 that he would "never leave us or forsake us." We must cling to His words, not to the lies of the devil. It is through Him and Him alone that we can not only continue to go on through the darkness but have the victory in it as well. No matter how bad life may seem, there is a real God who loves us and who sent his son to die for us. This does not mean that we are to deny the fact that there are bad things happening in this world, instead we are to hope in Jesus amidst the turmoil and darkness.