When I was a child I was afraid of the dark. I was convinced that the night contained all kinds of scary life-threatening things. My mind would be on red alert, and I would eventually fall asleep from panic exhaustion. Then, one night, my parents put a night light in my bedroom and in the hallway outside my room. The threat of the darkness was broken.

Robert Voyle once wrote, “When children are afraid of the dark, we don’t turn off the dark. We don’t need to spend time analyzing the darkness or where it came from, or eloquently describing its subtle shades and nuances, or romanticizing the darkness, or fighting the monsters that roam in the darkness. We just need to turn on the light! And in the words of Martin Buber, if we teach children to see and carry the light that is within her or him, she or he need never be afraid of the darkness.”

As I write this a former colleague sits beside the bed of his critically injured son, a wife sits beside the bed of her critically ill husband, a son plans the funeral of his father and a nation and prays for the people in southeast Texas.

Jesus said that those who take Him seriously are “the light of the world.” We are called to shine the light of Peace, Hope, Joy and God’s Love into all of dark places of God’s world.

Lord, show me how to let my light shine brightly so that others will not be afraid. Remove my fear and fill my life with the Light of Your Love.