When darkness creeps into our lives, it’s hard to have faith. When we’re scared and frightened by the world around us, unable to trust our neighbors and our community, it’s difficult for those of us who believe in a higher power to trust our God. In fact, it’s increasingly difficult to believe there is a God at all.
If this higher power were real, wouldn’t light always triumph against darkness? Wouldn’t we be able to walk out of our houses every day certain nothing bad could ever happen to us? Why wouldn’t this omniscient and omnipotent God gift us with security and peace?
A question that irks us even more is why in the world this power would allow terrible things to happen to wonderful people. Why has the kindest and most joyous young man I know been diagnosed with Nodular Sclerosis Hodgkin’s Lymphoma? Why has a beautiful, goofy and kindhearted young woman displaced from her community, taken from those who love her most? If God were truly here with us, wouldn’t all of this terror disappear?
That these questions are unanswerable is the most terrifying thing of all. There is no concrete proof, no scientific experiment we can run, no firsthand accounts that will give us these answers. So ultimately we have to decide: in spite of the pain, loss and terror, do we have faith? Or do we deem it nonsensical madness and submit to the unpredictable chaos of this world? That choice is up to you.
I think hope lies in the everyday. It is in the neighbor standing at your door. It is in the thousands of candles raised for a dear friend. It is in the resurrection of love despite our unalterable reality.
Bad things happen. But love is always there to light up the darkness, to lift us up no matter how many times we fall, to bring us back home. So if you’re wondering where God is in this chaotic and uncertain life, don’t be fooled by the darkness. Look instead to love.
Peyton’s column runs biweekly Wednesdays. She can be reached at p.williams@cavalierdaily.com.
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