Be a light

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Be a light in the darkness

Be a light

Be

 

If only I could

But it is not so easy to be the light

In a world that embraces darkness

 

It is not easy to be light

When people condemn you for shining light

In the dark places

 

And call you divisive

A hater

 

Gaslighting kills light

 

And so one sits in the darkness

Flickering

The light barely alive

 

While the darkness grows and grows

Gaining power through lies

And abusive power

And wealth

 

While darkness sits in the halls of power

In the courts of justice

While the greedy and abusive win

 

While the people of the lie (Scott Peck)

Call good evil, and evil good

And up down, and down up

 

The children of darkness abandon and vilify

The homeless

The immigrant

The poor

 

Those souls so foolish

As to not be rich, and powerful

 

One cannot help but remember the words of the prophets

Who also saw times like this

 

“Woe to those who plan iniquity, to those who plot evil on their beds!

At morning’s light they carry it out because it is in their power to do it.

They covet fields and seize them, and houses, and take them.

They defraud people, rob them

Therefore, the Lord says:

I am planning disaster against this people”  (Micah)

 

Dare we believe that our helplessness is not definitive?

That their unchecked power is not definitive?

That there is a higher law

A deeper truth

 

That will turn the darkness against itself

Until it cracks

And once again, the light leaks in

 

Can we continue to be light until then

Can the light of love, and hope

Peace and joy keep burning

Through the long night

 

Perhaps I will never see

the time when light returns

Perhaps our world, our country

Will continue to slide into the abyss

 

It has happened so many times

Yes, resurrection has happened

A new thing has been birthed, time and time again,

 

But only after destruction

Only after all is gone

And nothing is left but rubble

 

But still

We can, perhaps hope

We can be people with soft fronts

Refusing to live in hate

 

We can be people with strong backs

Refusing to accept quietly

The lies, the hate, the injustice

Refusing to let people silence us

By making us the haters, when we call out hate

Making us divisive when we call out the lies

 

We are all too eager to let them

Gaslight us

And silence us

Because we care, it matters

We want to be fair. We have our doubts

We want to be people of grace

 

Is there still hope?

can we live in a way that keeps the light alive

Even as we die

Are silenced and suffocated

 

Perhaps we can keep burning

 

And perhaps

Even if our light goes out

We will have lit the flame in another

 

Perhaps

Perhaps we who are losing our will to burn

Can still be a light for others

 

Perhaps

But at this point?

I am no longer sure