I Want It All

Good morning…

Today’s block on my calendar whispers, “Last Quarter,” with a tiny sketch of a moon similar to the image above. Left half dark. Right half light. Now, to the light of a lamp in the dark hours of this night, I am drawn back to two quotes we read aloud yesterday during our final Monday class celebration. We discussed the wisdom we will carry forward from Learning to Walk in the Dark by Barbara Brown Taylor. Two favorite quotes blended beautifully from page 55 and page 186.

“To be human is to live by sunlight and moonlight, with anxiety and delight, admitting limits and transcending them, falling down and rising up,” Barbara affirms. “To want a life with only half of these things in it is is to want half a life, shutting the other half away where it will not interfere with one’s bright fantasies of the way things ought to be.”

One hundred and thirty one pages later, Barbara says a similar thing. “Now the sun still comes up, but it also goes down. Blessing the day means accepting my full quota of light and of dark, even when I cannot see what I am blessing. Is this dangerous? Perhaps. At this point I am more afraid of what I might leave out instead of what I might let in. With limited time left on this earth, I want more than the top halves of things – the spirit but not the flesh, the presence but not the absence, the faith but not the doubt. This late in life, I want it all.”

I made the light and the darkness. I bring peace, and I cause trouble. I, the Lord, do all these things (Isaiah 45:7, ERV).

Might we also want it all, all of the transformational gifts given from the hand of God?

…Sue…

P.S. One man who deeply embraces the light and the darkness of living fully is beloved counselor, Ron Greer. Ron is speaking at our “Service of Hope” at 6:00 pm tomorrow night in the Northside Church chapel. You won’t want to miss this special gathering. I hope to see you there.