Weary in the World

"I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.”  John 16:33

It has been a long week for a four day week (no school Monday because of the ice) and Friday's still ahead. It's amazing sometimes how time can play tricks on us. Not only does the "time" seem to morph based on a lot of different factors but sometimes events in our lives seem so cloudy and in the distance that we wonder if we really "lived" them.

On one of my other blogs I wrote that sometimes I feel a strange sense of unease, as if there is something just on the edge of my consciousness that I can't identify. The unease isn't necessarily fear but just a sense of "missing" something. Perhaps a sense of unfinished business or a path yet untraveled. I compared it to something hurtling toward me in the darkness, just out of vision and just outside of identifiable. I even in one of my flights of fancy, questioned whether it is perhaps another me in another universe, getting so close to the path I travel in this one that I can sense the "other me." I said it was a "flight of fancy" but who knows. Each universe containing a me that made different choices at key points in life. Interesting to muse outside the confines of time continuums.

Ok, so I went off on a lark there for a minute but musing can take one in circles or on long winding paths that dump you right back where you started. Such as it is this week, as I travel in circles of great faith and great despair.

“The darker the night, the brighter the stars,
The deeper the grief, the closer is God!”  

 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Crime and Punishment

 

 

Perhaps it is in times of great despair we are open to depending on great faith. In two different locations in our state (and probably untold others) sad events unfolded involving children. It's easy to despair and think the whole world has gone mad. Quite honestly, I can't argue that it hasn't. Yet somewhere in that "darkness" is a tiny flicker of light. You can feed the darkness or the light.

 

 

The Two Wolves

One evening an old Cherokee told his grandson about a battle that goes on inside people.
He said, “My son, the battle is between two wolves inside us all.

“One is Evil – It is anger, envy, jealousy, sorrow, regret, greed, arrogance, self-pity, guilt, resentment, inferiority, lies, false pride, superiority, and ego.

“The other is Good – It is joy, peace, love, hope, serenity, humility, kindness, benevolence, empathy, generosity, truth, compassion and faith.”

The grandson thought about it for a minute and then asked his grandfather: “Which wolf wins?”

The old Cherokee simply replied, “The one you feed.”



 

 

      For isn't it true if you stay in the "despair" mind set that you are feeding the darkness whether you intend to or not?  Isn't it only when one can transcend the darkness through faith that light trumps darkness?

Hugs to each of you and may you find the light in the darkness.