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“The people who sat in darkness have seen a great light.”  These words from today’s gospel touched something deep within me. Recently I have felt like many of us are people sitting in darkness.  We are tired and worn and it is often easier to see what is getting worse than it is to see what is getting better.  Day after day the news is full of stories of deterioration, of systems we depend on that are hovering near the brink of collapse.  Sometimes it feels as if we are no longer even the people who “walk in darkness.”  We are the people who are giving up and sitting in darkness.  We are reminiscent of the grandmothers in a joke that I remember from childhood.

How many grandmothers does it take to change a lightbulb?
“Don’t worry about me dear.  I will just sit here in the dark.”

But for those who have given up, “for those who sat in the region and shadow of death” we are told, “light has dawned.”  So, what do we need to do to see that light and to experience its warmth and comfort?

Jesus answers that question with some of the first words of his public ministry, “repent for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”  The Greek word that is translated as “repent” indicates “a profound change of mind.” If we want to experience the light, we must learn to think and see differently.  As Jesus walked by the sea of Galilee, he called people to fundamentally change their way of thinking because the world itself has been fundamentally changed.  Because God has become incarnate, the separation between earth and heaven is no longer unbridgeable.  Light is already present even in the deepest darkness, we just need to learn to genuinely believe that it is there and look for it.

As Michael J. Fox said in an interview last year, “you can’t just wait for things to be great and then be grateful for that.  You’ve got to behave in a way that promotes that.”  We’ve got to behave in a way that demonstrates our belief that God is working for good amidst even the most difficult things that we are experiencing.  When we express gratitude, life becomes better, and we have more to be grateful for.  When we name the small ways in which God is working in our lives, we begin to see bigger and bigger things that God is doing.  Repent, change the way you think, and you will experience the blessings of heaven in this life.  Each time I feel stressed or distressed or hear or see something discouraging in the week ahead, my challenge to myself will be to ask myself: how is God drawing closer in this?  And when I see how God is drawing closer, the second half of this self-challenge will be to embrace and celebrate that closeness by naming it out loud rather than focussing only on the source of my distress.

And if I manage to do this, it will be easier for those in my immediate circle to do the same, and over time, we will be joined by still more people and the light will continue to grow brighter.  We are indeed fishers of people.  As we change our way of thinking, those around us are affected.  And as they change, the circle of influence continues to grow.  We have felt it with the darkness, will we embrace it with the light?

Pam Driedger