Sometimes a room is so dark that

to flood it with a beacon would blind all inside it

The room needs the light but

You don’t want to hurt those sitting silent within

You don’t need much, a dim lightbulb will do –

its hazy glow, there not as much to

Illuminate as to prove the prior

Absence of light

you got so used to the dark you forgot

about the Light. Until the

dim bulb comes on, just bright

enough to prove a presence of darkness

And the shadows around you that were previously

All you knew are different now. The shaft of Light

Burrowing through that dark room

Shows you what lies around you

The shadow proves the sunshine

I wrote this as a part of a Leader’s Meeting while a Small Group Leader for Campus Christian Fellowship in Kirksville, MO. We were talking about the different metaphors used to describe God and were challenged to come up with our own metaphors, and then write a poem based on one of the metaphors we came up with. So this is me spitballing. I do find it fitting, however, that a tag from a Switchfoot song shows up in the end. It feels “right” in that way.

Sometimes we are surrounded in shadows. Everywhere we turn, we see only darkness. What’s funny is that we only recognize that it is darkness because we have an understanding (however hazy) of what light is. The fact that we see shadows is proof of something casting the light out into the world. Sometimes, a big rescue mission is the last thing you need to pull you out of that dark room – all that is really needed is someone to bring just enough light in for you to recognize the presence of shadows, and want for something more.