Darkness Exposed: A Harry Potter Tale

Tim and I recently finished watching the Harry Potter series. In the story, Voldemort is the most evil wizard who has ever existed. In my mind, he represents evil incarnate or Satan. In one scene, Ron Weasley is trying to destroy a piece of Voldemort’s  soul that inhabits the locket of a necklace (long story). As the locket is opened, a black cloud comes swirling out and begins speaking to Ron, knocking him down. 

The cloud taunts Ron with his worst fears and where he is most vulnerable, saying things like, “Your friends don’t care about you. They don’t need you. You’re not a part of this. She is in love with Harry. She doesn’t see anything in you.” The cloud even forms itself to look like Harry and Hermione kissing. 

Ron has to overcome these dark whispers, rear himself up, burst through the dark cloud and destroy the locket with a sword (picture left). For me, this scene is a very visual representation of the spiritual battles we face as believers. 

Scripture says that Satan is “the accuser” (Rev 12:10, Zech 3:1), “father of lies” (John 8:44), and “ruler of darkness” (Eph 6:12), among other names. Just as Voldemort spoke the most seductive, most believable lies to Ron, darkness can overtake our minds and speak lies to us. We must recognize the lies, “fasten on the belt of truth,” and “take up the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God” (Eph 6:14,17). 

I am learning to identify specific lies or fears, and then counter them with truth, but it is no easy task. When we face hardship, loss, rejection or failure, it is easy to believe our perception of our experiences over God’s truth. It is easy to begin listening to voices that say things like, “You are a disappointment,” “You deserve this,” or “God doesn’t care about you.” However, the truth is that we are his children (Rom 8:15), He created us (Psalm 139:13, Eph 2:10, James 1:18, Jeremiah 1:5), He knows “our inmost being” (Psalm 139), He “sees [us]” (Gen 16:13), and He protects us (2 Sam 22:3).

by Jeff Guy from For the Beauty of the Earth

Psalm 139 is a great example of this process of human lamentation and struggle and the Lord’s protection. I encourage you to read the entire Psalm.  I pray that we can identify the voices that the accuser uses against us and counter them with God’s truth. God’s glory is revealed in us when we let him fight our battles and let him redeem us. His light is made manifest on this planet through our acceptance of His love. 

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me, and the light about me be night,” even the darkness is not dark to you; the night is bright as the day,
for darkness is as light with you. (Psalms 139:11-12)

Life "As Usual"

I’ve found myself wanting to return to the normal rhythms of life since returning from Nepal. Three meals a day, working, biking, praying, Bible study, and church. However, God is refusing to let me simply fall back into “life as usual.”

Jessica Cruickshank, one of SROM’s core employees and one of my very close friends, listened to the Lord and has moved on to other work away from SROM. Now being in the office, I certainly feel a gap where her work, love, and personality were present. I’ve also had to pick up a few more responsibilities to help fill the gap she left. My friend and coworker Rachel Telian is also amidst a transition time, as she is applying for graduate school to study Theology & the Arts. I am not looking forward to her absence at work (or in town as a part of my Laramie family). In short, my work environment will not continue to be “life as usual.”

The Wave by Chris Overvoord

Amidst this change, I have shocked myself at how peaceful I have been. I am not the type of person that usually embraces change. There is a part of me that wants to hold on too tightly to circumstances (as well as possessions). I usually say things like, “But I like the way things are right now,” not able to imagine a future that would be better. But if the Lord is going to “do a new thing” (Isa 43:19), if He is going to redeem me, if He is going to build His kingdom on the earth, there has to be change. This change includes my heart, my life, and even my job and this organization. My point of this all is to say that if I can have the faith to rest in God during seemingly tumultuous situations, maybe you can too. Thanks be to God!

Winter Lessons

Towards the end of February almost all of our staff went into Rocky Mountain National Park to take a Leave No Trace Master Educator Course. It was a chilly, windy yet beautiful time, experiencing Christ through one another and through His divine revelation! 

These winter experiences are a visual reminder to me of the character and nature of God: God is powerful as the mighty gusts of wind; God is majestic as the snowy slopes; God is beyond human understanding or control. Amidst the struggle for survival in these winter environments, there is a beauty beyond compare. 

As a senior in high school I wrote a paper entitled, “Searching for Beauty in the Breakdown” that discussed my own search for meaning, value, and goodness despite the evil that happened to me personally and the evil that manifests all over the earth. I was searching for redemption and the restoration that I believe is a theme of the whole history of humanity (and theme of all of scripture). 

Winter makes these themes incredibly obvious! Yes, the gusting wind and white out conditions can be difficult, annoying, or scary, but the peace found there and the peace from the Lord in those moments is beyond compare. Once we open our eyes and look outside of ourselves, we see an environment that the Lord made for his own pleasure. We are able to really see how much bigger this life is than ourselves. 

He’s weaving together a redemptive story more full of meaning than any human author could ever write!