When
I taught at a community college in St. Louis, I wrote a quote on the blackboard
every class period. Usually, I didn’t
even mention the quote during class, but I saw some students write down the
words of encouragement to keep. Every
January, I shared these words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
“Darkness cannot drive out
darkness; only light can do that. Hate
cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”
A dark room becomes light when a
source of light like an open door, drives out the darkness—simply, quietly.
We
mere mortals at times seem to be drawn to reacting to darkness in its
nonliteral sense emotionally. Unkind
words, things done purposely to be hateful can tempt us to respond in hateful
ways ourselves, just adding to the darkness.
The way of Christ, however, the light of the world, is to respond in
love, thus allowing light and an opportunity for that kindness to make the
darkness just a little lighter.
My
husband Jim was a great doer of good, a vessel of light and life, during the 69
years he lived, 47 of which I knew and loved him. There was not one day that I doubted his love
for me. He was truly passionate about
spreading love and light wherever he was, sometimes in very funny and creative
ways. He actually did spread “fake news”
when he started having “fake news conferences” to liven up a county office
where he started working after retiring from teaching physical education and
coaching track and cross country. He
pretended to be the county supervisor and made up funny “news” to broadcast
through his fake microphones. A new
friend made in the last two years living in Charleston, Illinois, shared that
his passing on August 15th “made the light a little dimmer in the
world.”
We
all have choices as we live out our lives.
Will we add to the darkness around us, the hate that can come against
us, or will we choose to offer light in a world in such need of it. Jesus would have us let His light shine
through us as it did through Jim.
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