There are some things you can only see when the lights go out…

I remember several years ago, when the U.S. was experiencing an increasing number of rolling brown outs and black outs including some of extended periods in areas with massive population, that Time magazine featured the issue as a cover story. In one of the main articles in that issue, the author talked about an interesting perspective. He talked about what becomes visible in a contemporary metropolis when the power goes off. Not the crime, not the challenges of living without what we are accustomed to, but the night sky…the stars. He wrote that “there are some things you can only see when the lights go out”.

That phrase has stuck with me over the intervening years, and become something of a guiding idea when it comes to wrestling with the place and purpose of things like doubt, forgiveness, and belief. It helps me hold on to hope in situations that look hopeless from my limited point of view.

Maybe it is so important to have a source of hope that is bigger than we are that we have just made up the idea of God and religion is simply the set of rules we have constructed to aim as many people as possible at the same idea. Or maybe God is real, and belief is essential in keeping us on our quest to know more deeply and live more closely to what is true, to the One who is true.

O.K…this has now become longer than a “blurp”, so let me suggest that I stop and invite you to come out to The Table, 318 ½ Ross on Monday evening for the next instalment of The Sunset Dialogues. People generally begin to arrive around 7: we get underway for real about 7:30.

 

Remember to bring your own mind, your own soul, your own questions and your own cup or mug. These are the essentials for a good dialogue.

Peace,

Tim Plett