How to Find Light Amidst Darkness & Joy in the Mess

Leaves float light past the window and a pumpkin spice latte candle flickers at my desk. It’s full-on fall with its confused temperatures and invitation to savor amplified sounds, scents, and flavors. Autumn is heart-speak season, where we wear joy like it’s a cozy sweater and slow the rush, slow our breath, slow our steps.

Do you feel it too? Color that creeps into a grayed out day just as much as it thrives under a vibrant blue sky. Gratitude that swells even in the wake of swollen rivers and scarcity and loss.

It’s as if the shift in the season stirs the dormant places inside that want to praise God. Like the cooler temperatures bring clarity to His vastness and goodness. Like the allure of cozy is a call to see the sacred in the ordinary and celebrate the small ways life is full of light and meaning.

Even–perhaps especially–in the middle of the rubbish. In the churned up landscape disrupting precious lives. In our aches and breaks and terse questions.

Light in the Darkness

I find myself in Psalm 27, reading it several times over because it’s words for right now. 

The Eternal is my light amidst my darkness and my rescue in times of trouble. So whom shall I fear? He surrounds me with a fortress of protection. So nothing should cause me alarm.

vs. 1-2, The Voice

We’ve felt the dire squeeze of darkness as we seek light. I want to dismiss that this side of heaven, they exist in tandem. There’s a continual push and pull, from despair and fear and anxiety to sustaining hope. Jesus is light amidst darkness. One day He will overpower it and there will be only light, but until then, He meets us in the places that are torn and tender. He brings light to us.

Verse 5 coincides:

His house is my shelter and secret retreat. It is there I find peace in the midst of storm and turmoil. Safety sits with me in the hiding place of God. He will set me on a rock, high above the fray.

The Voice

Jesus, in His infinite wisdom and limitless kindness, teaches us to seek His peace while we’re in the storm. He pulls us close, and from the vantage point of being right next to Him, we gain perspective.

Joy in the Mess

As we adopt His lens, we find yet another oxymoron: joy in the middle of the mess. Not joy like a trickle but a gushing overflow. David says it this way in verses 6-7:

I will enter His presence, offering sacrifices and praise. In His house, I am overcome with joy as I sing, yes, and play music for the Eternal alone. I cannot shout any louder. Eternal One–hear my cry and respond with Your grace. The prodding of my heart leads me to chase after You.

The Voice

Overcome. Overwhelmed. Undone. Such is David’s response when He seeks the shelter of Jesus’s presence while turmoil rages around him.

David finds himself in a spot many of us do today, sandwiched between the ugly and awful repercussions of a severed relationship with God and the invitation to find oasis in the here-and-now as we wait for full glory.

Seeking Jesus

Psalm 27 is reassurance that no matter how bad the world may appear, God is with us still. In it I find uncanny connection to the beauty that rises from the slow dying that is fall. There’s juxtaposition in the freshness we feel as we transition from summer to winter, from blossom to decay and hibernation.

My deep hope for you is that you’ll be fully present in this season, alive to both hurt and hope. I pray that the ache you feel as you survey the disarray will be replaced with an ache to be near Jesus. May David’s words in verse 4 reorient our priorities:

I am pleading with the Eternal for this one thing, my soul’s desire: to live with Him all of my days–in the shadow of His temple, to behold His beauty and ponder His ways in the company of His people.

The Voice

What if our desire to be close to Jesus wrecked us more than the things that wreak havoc in our natural world? What if our burning need to know Him consumed us more than the political debates? What if we spoke our gratitude directly to Jesus but also out loud so the people around us could overhear?

Practicing Gratitude

November nears, and with it a slew of gratitude challenges focused on identifying bright and lovely in the midst of the harsh and mundane. It’s become my favorite month because of the ready reminders to steep in gratitude.

I want you to take the challenges. I want you to dig deep into intentional thanks. But I also want it to mark your life for more than a month.

Every year, I offer a gratitude challenge, and this year I’m especially excited about the #ReflectJesus challenge, where we’ll tag, encourage, and affirm people in our lives who reflect Jesus. But my larger vision is year-round, ripple-effect gratitude. Gratitude not just for you, but for those who lives intersect with yours: Your family, friends, neighbors. Your co-workers and classmates and teammates. Because what grows inside shows, and the habits we cultivate shape the direction of our lives.

If you haven’t signed up for the 2024 gratitude challenge yet, grab the prompts and prayers via the button above. But I also invite you to check out Begin Within: A Gratitude Series, which I have the deep joy and honor of hosting. Every week you’ll hear from real people about how they practice gratitude and what it’s changed for them. Get the weekly stories in your inbox to nurture your own year-round habit of intentional gratitude.

A Prayer to Tuck Into Your Heart

No matter how dark your world feels right now, I pray that the gift of fall would tug your heart towards thanks. That as you look for Jesus in other people through the #ReflectJesus challenge, it will deepen and awaken your desire “to behold [God’s] beauty and ponder His ways in the company of His people” (Psalm 27:4, The Voice).

Just a friend over here in your corner,

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