Walking in the Light

I recently did a search of famous Chesterton quotes, and this one caught my attention and made me think:

“It is not always wrong even to go, like Dante, to the brink of the lowest promontory and look down at hell. It is when you look up at hell that a serious miscalculation has probably been made.”

I can’t help but chuckle at the way he puts it. Could there be anything more serious and awful than landing in hell for all eternity? And then to follow it with such an understatement as — “a serious miscalculation has probably been made.”

But what I like most about this comment on hell is that idea that we shouldn’t be shaken when we look into hell or at hell. If hell is the absence of God—the absence of love, light, and goodness—then it is every situation we hear of or experience that is dark, evil, and void of God.

Every day at my school I hear a heartbreaking story. Although I won’t share the exact details, these vignettes are similar to real cases:

• A mom who abandons her children and leaves a dad so angry that the children are anxious, angry, and starved for love.

• A child who comes to school every day smelling of marajuana and seems to be in a daze all day, having difficulty remembering what is taught and practiced.

• A teacher experiencing family life traumas of abuse and cruelty who has to come to school and hold out a torch of hope for children who need it so desperately.

• Parents lashing out at teachers and posting mean things about them on social media because they don’t know better, more courageous ways of solving conflict.

In my apartment building, there are lots of people post-retirement. Some of them are grieving widows with ailments that leave them vulnerable and frightened. Some are suffering from loneliness and loss of meaning. It’s not all darkness, though, because they find friendships here.

Then there is the pain and darkness in my own life: Tom’s total dependence on me for living. Husbands aren’t supposed to be like this. His broken-down body impinges on my freedom and asks of me what I really don’t want to give. My selfishness and cynicism that catch me off guard. My impatience and anger. My pride, which wants to do everything perfectly so I can be the heroine of the story.

My family and friends have stories of their own—hardships that are Gordian knots, illnesses, losses, and hurts.

The point I think Chesterton was making is that there is nothing wrong with looking hell squarely in the face. It is much better to see it from without than from within.

My conclusion is a reminder to myself to “walk in the light” and not to be afraid of the dark.

1 John 1:7
“But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin.”

John 8:12
“Again Jesus spoke to them, saying, ‘I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.’”

Psalm 27:1 — “The Lord is my light and my salvation; whom shall I fear?”