Light Will Forever Be The Answer To Darkness

​In his sermon last Sunday, Pastor Jonny Ardavanis said, "If you want to know why the world is the way it is, it's partly because the church holy huddles, talks about how dark the world is, and doesn't shine, practically speaking."

He said this after telling his congregation that in the aftermath of tragic events we are more prone than ever to turning to our favorite pastor, our favorite podcast host, our favorite blogger, or favorite TikTok influencer to quickly hear or read their response.

Pastor Ardavanis said, "Well today, I want to ask what YOUR response is going to be."

I had a conversation with a friend the other day. We were talking about leaving the social media world. At the heart of that consideration is the reality that the social media world is a dark place these days.

And the darkness grows darker by the day.

In many ways, the online world has become its own kind of holy huddle. Just like the church can gather and spend more time talking about the darkness than shining light into it, social media gathers us in circles where we amplify the problems of the world without stepping into them. We scroll, we like, we share, we argue - all within a digital sanctuary that rarely requires us to go out and live differently.

The irony is that while the church’s holy huddle keeps the light bottled up, the online holy huddle can convince us that talking about darkness is actually the same as addressing it.

It’s not.

In fact, when the online conversation becomes the main world we inhabit, we risk believing that the dark online world IS the world, and when that happens, we lose our courage to go into the real one carrying light.

The dark online world keeps us fixated on what are 'they' going to SAY about this, which explicitly or implicitly removes my obligation to answer - what am 'I' going to go into the real world and DO about this.

Because the truth is, the world outside our screens is still full of neighbors to love, communities to serve, beauty to notice, and light to share.

Light has forever been and will forever be the only helpful answer to darkness. We should spend a little more time talking about it.

We should spend a whole lot more time being it.

Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.

(Matthew 5:14-16)