Tag Archives: darkness

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Bastille: Pompeii/ FaithWalk Comment

The song playing on the radio caught my attention. I’m a sucker for a catchy song, but this time I thought I’d inadvertently tuned to a Christian channel rather than Radio 1 and had to check the dial. My foot started tapping along in the car as I heard:

“We were caught up and lost in all of our vices…”

“Oh where do we begin, the rubble o’ our sins?”

I only heard the latter part of the song and missed the artist details, but when I got home I searched over Radio 1’s playlist and discovered the song named ‘Pompeii’. It made sense when I watched the video – the inevitability of the destruction of the ancient city, how not one individual could escape the impending doom.

The spiritual analogies are rife, and I keep listening to this song which dominates the airways as it resonates with our current culture. The video is a vivid display of the inevitability of the destructive forces of our sin. But the artist leaves us with no solution. We’re simply destined to succumb to the darkness in our eyes and souls.

But there is a solution. And it’s found in the person of Christ who’s made restitution for the darkness that seeps into our hearts and tries to take over. How amazing to know that we are not lost and we don’t have to submit to the overwhelming depravity that comes to us naturally. In Christ anyone can become a new creation and experience a transformed life. We can’t get rid of the darkness on our own, but when we let God step into our lives, He can wash us clean.

This may not be the intended message that the artist wanted to convey, but my spirit almost can’t help shouting out the solution to the burden of a dark heart that Christ wants to fill with his light. I’ve experienced that light and it’s oh so freeing. Next time you hear the song, think what about what it speaks to you.

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Poem: Invitation to Light

[I unearthed this poem from six years ago, one of my grittier, honest poems…]

Darkness encapsulates the soul

Flaunting its ability to deplete nearly every last drop of hope and delight

In the ordinariness of a life squeezed by stresses or disillusionment,

Deflated by the realisation that self-fulfilment is not within reach

Nor peace a possibility at this stage in the game of life

(Young mothers may understand what I mean)

Yet merely a flicker of an eyelid commands power through its

Invitation to light,

As the eyes allow access like windows into my very being,

Embracing the call of creation which

Diffuses my small sufferings and dares to defy

Negativity, too much subjectivity

Or inflated thoughts of doom and gloom

Scattered through the day like pepper on a plate

Vision enables me, calls me to scan the horizon from east to west

And to see beyond the boundaries of my existence, while

Everything within cannot resist the rapture of God’s alluring landscape

My lungs expand involuntarily to grasp a fresh taste of salty air

As exuberant waves demand my attention, and I cannot deny

Your existence, Your true trademark of nature

And my all-consuming little life is dwarfed by the wonder of silvery sea and

Sugar-like sand that cannot be captured in the palm of my hand

And I laugh at the way you designed me to depend on

Your light, as you shine through the sun

Saving my sanity, as warmth envelops me,

Teases me, reminds me that there’s more to this world

Than me, than mine, and yet more of me,

And your cotton-like clouds entertain far more than what I see on TV

And the stones on the beach are pure pleasure to see

I’ll remember next time

When I open my eyes and respond to your

Invitation to light