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Saturday, February 9, 2013

Spirituality: Nighttime

Nighttime is an odd time in human life, indicated by the fact that young children never want to go to bed. It is a scary time. It is a time out of control, plus the fact that you might miss something. In the daytime, before we go to bed, we mostly manage and cope, and even do well, and stay in control of our lives as best we can. When we wake up the next morning, we may sleep late or
get up early; but either way, we take on the day and pick up our activities and responsibilities and cope, more-or-less as best we can.

But in between going to bed and waking up, there is that odd time when we let our guard down. We can’t help it. We let our guard down because, as we say, we “lose consciousness.” In an age before electricity, it was a very dark time and the forces beyond our control—either real or imagined—crowded in our lives. That is why ghosts and spooks operate at night, out of control, when we cannot see them. That is why, moreover, the pivotal events in biblical faith happen at nighttime, when we cannot see them. Specifically, the deliverance of Israel from Egypt happened at night and the resurrection of Jesus from the dead happened at night when no one saw. All of us, moreover, know about the night when we hear strange noises and our anxieties become large, and we go over and over and over things that are beyond our control. Sigmund Freud, of course, made a defining study of dreams; understood that in dreams unexpected and sometimes unwelcome messages come to us that have force and meaning, often embodying those arts of our life that we do not understand or control. Unlike the daytime, the nighttime is vulnerable and exposed and dangerous. It is that time when we cannot manage, and people of faith are drawn to God as a source of safety when there is no other source of safety, and as a source of presence when the world feels absent.

And now, nightmares are very big in our world . . . wars and rumors of war and terror and assault and threat and violence. We feel unsafe and we dream up all kinds of security programs that do not in fact make us any safer, but if anything, only more anxious. Daytime is for obedience and virtue and morality. But nighttime is for threat and danger and anxiety.

10 comments:

  1. Claire's comment really speaks to me because I was thinking of how the dark at night and the dark times of my soul have both propelled me into the arms of Jesus. As a child I was very afraid of the dark and that is the origin of my reliance on Jesus as I talked to him when I was afraid as a child and would picture myself on Jesus' lap in his embrace.

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    1. Very nice. I'm thankful we have a world of electricity.

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  2. I think we should be light and shine with God's assistance even when we in the dark.

    As you know, if light comes, dark will leave.

    I was also afraid of being left in the dark. However, I realized that if I'm fully filled with the Holy Spirit, I'm able to shine brightly on the spiritual side.

    Our way will be lit by the Holy Spirit and Our light will light the way for ourselves and others. I think we have to be careful never to lose the Holy Spirit..

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    1. Yes, we need to let God's light shine through us and guide us in our choices. The Holy Spirit means to care for us and keep us safe from all harm.

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  3. I guess I was meant to be a hamster, because I actually enjoy the night, at least as long as I am in my nice safe house or another familiar place. The demands of the day seem far away, and I can think or pray or read or listen to music/audiobooks in peace. And I often think of the place in the Song of Songs where the woman says "In my bed by night I sought him whom my soul loveth." Although she dawdled and didn't let her lover into the room in time so he went away and she had to seek him, it still is an evocative image, as is the St. John of the Cross poem "Noche Obscura" on much the same theme, where the lover wanders through the dark streets at night but says the light burning in the heart provides more sure guidance than the noonday sun in the quest for the Beloved. Night is a good time as we lay aside our workaday clothes (and if one is a woman, to wash off the make-up--Eleanor Rigby's "face that she keeps in a jar" ---and brush out one's business hairstyle) to also lay aside the daytime persona with all its concerns and activities and just be oneself, open, receptive, awaiting or seeking the Beloved. Unfortunately I'm not a mystic and I can't so easily divest myself of my many preoccupations, but sometimes in that in-between stage between wakefulness and drowsiness, it does seem that I can momentarily forget my litany of complaints, my list of petitions, my catalog of desires, and just rest for a moment in the appreciation of the beauty and tenderness of the One who loves me. I wish it lasted longer. But I'll take it when I can get it, and for me, the night time has the possibility to be a time for intimacy and honesty more than for fear.

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    1. Night time isn't what it used to be since we've developed electricity. I'm glad you find the peace and serenity at night that sustains and nourishes you. Many are night people. When I was in my teens, I worked the third shift and I noticed a whole world that lived in the nighttime. Many animals are nocturnal. The night sky and moon provides great beauty for them.

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    2. In the 70's or 80's Laura Branigan had a popular rock song that declared "I live among the creatures of the night...A safe night; I'm living in the forest of my dream. I know the night is not as it would seem." We have an IR camera that captures noctural visitors to our birdfeeder area--dainty foxes who seem to dance, silvery in the moonlight, craft raccoons scheming ways to open even the trickiest feeder, shy deer reaching up to nibble the last leaves clinging to the snowy branches, even a shaggy old 'possum lumbering slowly among the last corn cobs. Indeed it is a whole world, utterly different from the hectic acrobatics of the squirrels, the crazed darting of chipmunks, the flurry of songbird, jays, woodpeckers and crows competing for whatever can be snatched from the squirrels, and the sudden incursions by the local flock of turkeys who all fill the daytime with color and motion.
      There is a large skylight directly over my bed, and the great pageant of the heavens moves across it almost as if it were on a big-screen television just for my benefit. This time of year, the Big Dipper is right above me for most of night. Depending on my mood, sometimes it can seem more like a giant question-mark or even a reaper's sickle than the dancing mamma bear of Ursa Major or the salvific "Drinkin' Gourd" that guided the escaping slaves northward on the Underground Railroad long ago. When the full moon appears in the skylight it is almost bright enough to read by, and I like to rearrange myself in the bed so I can "moon-bathe" in its gentle light and picture the tides in nearby Casco Bay yearning upward in the seabed to greet it.
      Yes, indeed, the night has its own beauties and rhythms, which we can appreciate if we feel we are in a sheltered place and light is just the press of a finger away. It was very different when I used to be out camping in the Virginia woodlands with my Scout troop and every shadow conjured up a marauding bear and every noise was magnified and menacing!

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    3. This is beautiful. Thanks for your poetic words to describe your experiences of night. Beautiful.

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