It is ironic and sad that sometime around the Christmas season when all thoughts (at least Christian ones) should be squarely on the emergence of light in the world as the Word became flesh and tabernacled in our midst, that more often than not a tidal wave of darkness floods in.

Christmas becomes a lightning rod rather than a beacon and people tend to view it is the unmet ideal rather than the message of hope that it is. Sometimes it is fairly light darkness (greyness??) such as moaning about gifts and spending and other times it is seriously deep darkness in the form of blatant cynicism.

As far as I have noticed one good way of identifying the dark trending thoughts from the light is to look at the subject of the statements being made – if you see a lot of I and me oriented commentary you will often find them attached to statements of what is lacking or what horrors are being perpetrated on said person.

Hopeful thinking tends to be other-oriented in its direction with a focus away from self and toward the community. When it does look at self it does so through the lens of its place in the world and relative to Christ.

I think it is important to work hard at where our thinking is because our attitude has gravity. Some of us must work harder than others at being hopeful because of wiring or our circumstance and sometimes we will not be strong enough to overcome the darkness on our own. A dark mind seeks to darken the minds of those around them… consciously, subconsciously and often completely unintentionally. The good news is a light mind does the same…it seeks to flood the minds of the people around them with its light.

In a world where there is always pain and darkness weighing upon us there is no benefit in giving it a foothold in our lives and the lives of those around us. Although the axim “misery loves company” is true the company does nothing to improve the state of the miserable…on the contrary two miserable people together are exponentially more miserable than one and so on.

The dark heart is the heart that seeks attention upon itself and this is understandable but not necessarily healthy. It is the heart that seeks pity and an awareness of pain for the sake of an awareness of pain. Like the Pharisees who could not pray in private and who needed to rend their robes in the public square to show the community the depth of their pain and suffering, so too the dark and weighed down mind seeks to expose itself like a flasher to the eyes of passersby.

The light heart seeks no attention for itself for it is consumed with what God has already done for it. It is focused on being and allowing God to be through it…transforming it into a beacon. Ironically the light heart is attractive and draws people to it without intending to do so while the dark heart in another sad irony pushes people away (except the like minded) and remains more lonely than before…it is a sad and vicious cycle.

The good news is that one genuinely joyful person can light up an entire cavern of darkness just as a match in the darkness of space can be seen for thousands of miles. As long as there is one light darkness ceases to truly exist.

As we move into the season there is no doubt a myriad of reasons to be sad…there is loneliness, death, hatred, envy, strife, and every kind of darkness weighing on us…but…there always is. The Gospel of Matthew 26:6-11 speaks of where our focus should be in the midst of a world broken in and around us:

While Jesus was in Bethany in the home of Simon the Leper, a woman came to him with an alabaster jar of very expensive perfume, which she poured on his head as he was reclining at the table. When the disciples saw this, they were indignant. “Why this waste?” they asked. “This perfume could have been sold at a high price and the money given to the poor.” Aware of this, Jesus said to them, “Why are you bothering this woman? She has done a beautiful thing to me. The poor you will always have with you, but you will not always have me.”