“The darkness is not winning!”
These are words I read yesterday in a newsletter from my brother and sister-in-law. Stan and Tami live in Denver but spend at least half the year traveling throughout the world. And in their travels, they see things. They connect with people through the joys and challenges of a life overseas. They know that of which they speak, because they see God at work.
They know that the darkness is not winning. So today I offer you the encouragement that they gave me through their newsletter:
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1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2 He was with God in the beginning. 3 Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. 4 In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. 5 The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it…. 14 And the Word became flesh and lived among us.
The truth is that wherever the news on television has been particularly bad this year, the Light is there shining and overcoming the Darkness. Refugees in the Middle East are being taken in by Christians, hatred is overcome by love. The hungry are being fed and the wounded healed in Jesus name. Discouraged and dislocated people are hearing about Jesus and receiving him and finding life and community and safety. Slaves in South East Asia are being set free from sex and labor imprisonment and the Light is even shining into the places where these slaves are working while they are still in slavery.”*
As I scan the news and read of grief, loss, and terror I think of the words from this newsletter, that wherever the news is particularly bad, the light is there shining and overcoming the darkness.
And I’m challenged yet again to live as one who knows that the darkness is not winning.
Where do you see the light shining and overcoming the darkness?
*[source – Stan & Tami Brown IDEAS]