World of Darkness/World of Light

If we were to take a sheet of poster paper and draw a line down the center.....
If on one side of the line, we wrote:  World of Darkness, and on the other side, we wrote, World of Light....

and then, if we were to list all the words we could think of that convey "Darkness," we might come up with something like this:  chaos, confusion, horror, terror, fear, abyss, separation, isolation, loneliness, depression, anger, division, revenge, hatred, rage, unforgiveness, lack of understanding, poverty, pain, suffering, death, etc....

Then, if we changed the word "World" to "works" (of Darkness), we could list alongside our nouns some of the actions, or things people do, which create "World" of Darkness, things we live with every day and talk about every day as we see the darkness taking over the world we know:  beheading, killing, cutting off of peoples for whatever reason --differences of belief, of color, of gender, of age -- anyone who threatens our own identity.  On another level, we see hard-heartedness toward those who are excluded from acceptable society -- the sick, the homeless, the elderly, the helpless, the infant in the womb, etc.  We see gossip, angry words and actions, killings on the streets, gang warfare, robbery, drunkenness, drugs destroying lives, corporations and governments squeezing the last farthing from those who are barely surviving, etc.

If we then turn to the World of Light and listed all the synonyms that convey "Light," we might come up with another kind of list:  life, goodness, peace, acceptance, patience, understanding, joy, celebration, freedom, truth, love, etc.  And then, if we changed "World" to "works," we might look around us and list what we see all around us, as Jesus said, "the lame walk, the blind see, lepers are made clean, the deaf hear, the dead are raised to life, and good news is preached to the poor" (Luke 7).  Walk into any hospital today and observe dedicated doctors and nurses and health-care workers putting aside their own comfort and ease, exhausting themselves to heal the sick, to comfort the sorrowing, to work together as a team for the good of all those who enter the doors.  Go into any inner city and see in the midst of squalor those who are caring for abandoned children, feeding the hungry, cleaning up the alcoholics and druggies, and providing safe shelter for those trapped in sex-trading.  Go into any school and watch teachers and aides who are struggling to overcome neglect of children, the effects of poverty and ignorance, to give children a sense of self-worth and accomplishment.  Behold at the World--and the works--- of Light all around us!

Our choice today is identical to the one Moses gave the Israelites before they entered the Land of Promise:  I set before you today Life and Death -- choose Life!  We see the world of darkness closing in on us, the way of Death, and it threatens daily the World of Light, of Goodness, of Peace, of Joy.  We no longer have the choice to be neutral, to do nothing, to wait and hope the disaster will pass us by.  If we do not actively choose the world of Light, of Good, then we by default will have chosen the Way of Death.