Light in the Storm

The following is a short article I wrote for my home church's newsletter. I wrote it about a month ago, just after a big thunderstorm. It's not thunderstorm season anymore (although it still rains more days than not), but I thought I'd share anyways. Enjoy :)

Thunder rumbles outside. Well, it does more than that – it rattles windows and dishes, it shakes the entire house. The stars are hiding behind dark, menacing clouds. Flashes of lighting fill the ominous sky. The rain hitting the windows, the wind blowing through the palm trees, and the peals of thunder echoing through the nearby mountains are the only sounds to be heard.

This is a pretty typical evening here in Tela, Honduras during thunderstorm season. It’s total and complete darkness interspersed by fleeting flashes of bright light. During a storm last Friday evening, the power went out in my home for five hours. It can be pretty lonely during times like that, without internet or T.V. to distract me or lights to overcome the oppressive darkness of the storm. I have found, though, that it’s really all about your attitude. Power outages are a unique time for me. And in many ways I’ve come to value my time in the dark.

It’s a time where I am forced to leave behind all my technological distractions and sit in silence. I take time to pray, read the Bible, and play the guitar. I sing songs with words like “no storm can shake my inmost calm” and they have a whole new meaning. I have been so blessed by my time in the dark, because in the absence of physical light I can see the True Light in a different and more intimate way. And I’ve come to learn that it really doesn’t matter how dark it gets. We have been given a light that overcomes all.