How Accepting Darkness Can Help Us See the Light

Caiola's "Buzzcut Kid" takes us on four-minute journey through the ups and downs of life, teaching us to find light amidst the darkness.

It’s hard to see the forest from the trees when we’ve been in the thick of the brush long enough to forget when we started walking.

It’s often the passage of time that grants us the perspective we need to see that the forest closing in around us usually actually means we’re approaching a clearing. But what would happen if we sought this perspective out while we’re in the middle of the brush?

My grandfather served nearly four decades in the U.S. Forest Service and always insisted that the most efficient way to overcome my fear of the dark was to spend a night in the pitch-black darkness of Angeles National Forest.

Of course, I was too stubborn a child to oblige him. But the wisdom his words encapsulated taught me one of the most important lessons that guide my life: To embrace the unknown like the darkness that falls at night — because it almost always sheds a new light on the same situation.

Which brings me to the feature of this week’s service.