Much of the evil perpetuated by humanity happens at night. Horror films are often set in the cover of darkness. We associate night and darkness with increased risk – kids are ordered to come in from play once it is dark, streets feel less safe, and so on.
There is good reason for this. Sin festers in secrecy. It is a major strategy of evil. Darkness is a sort of veil. It inhibits visibility. This provides a psychological and practical protection for evil to thrive.
For all of these reasons, we often consider dark places as areas to be avoided. Again, there are good reasons to do so. However, one of the unforeseen consequences of surrendering the night to evil is that we forfeit half of the day.
Night and Darkness
Just because sin festers in secrecy does not mean there is sin where there is secrecy. Just because nighttime can be a breeding ground for evil does not mean it is impossible to do good at night.
Much of Western Christianity has sought to separate the secular and the sacred; to make things one or the other. However, it is the choices each of us have within any given setting that makes the distinction between sacred and secular, not the settings themselves. Secular is a perspective, a choice of character, more than a specific place or area.
What this means is that the night is not all bad. At least, it doesn’t have to be.
Visitors to New York City often wrestle with the decision about when to go to the Observation Deck of the Empire State Building — day or night. There is one kind of beauty that happens in the day and another seen at night. This is why sunset is such an in-demand time to go up there — you get the advantage of both.
Too much of modern Christianity is focused on avoiding dark places. We think the night is synonymous with evil. But anyone who has looked up at the stars, walked along the beach in the cool of the night or seen New York from an observation deck at 10 p.m. knows this is not true. There is beauty in the darkness.
To give up the night to evil things is to quit, to forfeit, to disregard half of the beauty the world has to offer. Christianity, and Christians, suffer from their willingness and inability to activate in the darkness.
The Illusion of Security
The idea of separating good into day time and evil into night gives us a false sense of security.
There is plenty of evil that happens in the day. Just as one example, 9/11 occurred on a sunny, mild, cloudless September morning.
Again, the Bible talks about the dichotomy of light versus darkness. What it refers to is not places, but conditions of the soul. If you cannot be a person of light unless it is bright outside, I wonder if you are truly a person of light at all. Aren’t you just a person of circumstances?
Said another way: if we are all people of light, is it ever truly dark where we are? Even in the night, we twinkle like stars. We shine. It is amazing how much darkness can be interrupted with just a little bit of light.
The reason I am pontificating on all of this is because I think we have developed a real problem. We have become too afraid. Too circumstantial. We see the night (literal hours of the day) as evil rather than darkness (a spiritual condition). We equate the two so much that I am wondering if this blog is even going to make sense to you.
We think we are okay when situations are sunny. We don’t realize the inherent danger of apathy — we are too drunk on comfort. We don’t see the opportunity of uncertainty, the necessity of a certain kind of doubt for faith to thrive. Too often, we do not see our power to stand up to fear and evil. We view ourselves as victims of it rather than agents against it.
Like I said before, we are living (at best) only half of our days — desperate for sun, dependent on visibility, bought into an illusion of control and safety.
God is the God of all, day and night. He is the God of the circumstances you want and the ones you don’t, the ones that make sense and the ones that are truly baffling, even infuriating. We are all agents and stewards of His Kingdom, in all circumstances. All situations. Day or night.
