Let’s just breathe – relax. Let’s loosen the feverish grasp we have on the situations we cannot control. Because they are just that – issues we cannot manage ourselves.

We see the swirling world around us – and it worries us – for good reason. We witness evil and malevolence gaining a foothold in society. This moss encrusted virus covers the hills and crevices of our culture.

We weep for such a loss. It’s terrifying – absolutely horrifying and depressing.

What you once considered right, gazing through the glasses of morality, are now mucky – caked in debris. You try to warn those around you that calamity is coming if we give way to such deceit; but, the clear looking glass is smudged – and black and white features have faded to gray.

It’s easy to walk around defeated and dulled by the sharp edges of life. For life in this world is not always fair – no, it’s painful sometimes.

Flowers do not always line the pavement to our imagined field of dreams. Sometimes we have to scrub the pavement of the graffiti – made by the hands of vandals and thieves. We have to pluck the thorns of the ruby rose – in order to appreciate the full beauty and fragrance.

Even though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I fear no evil, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff, they comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You have anointed my head with oil; My cup overflows.… Psalm 23:4

We may witness evil gaining a foothold. We may see the sky illuminate with the smoke of destruction and chaos. These are things that we, as children of the Living God, may witness.

Yet, we mustn’t lose heart. The LORD tells us to keep shining his light.

We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. – 2 Corinthians 4:8

For when we glow with the presence of the conquering King – darkness has to flee. It shrivels in despair.

We cannot fix this broken world; but we can bring hope to the hopeless and true healing to the broken. We can stand firm on the bedrock of our faith and share with others how to distinguish what is good and lovely in the midst of the bleeding, blurred lines of this crumbling society.

We can hold forth a lantern of truth – knowing that God’s luminosity (no matter if the stream of light is small) can irradiate the darkest of nights.

It just takes faith – and the courage to stare down that sinister smog the world exudes. Darkness and despair should never define us. Look to the light and let it defeat the evil among us.