Just some early morning thoughts from me to you…

When Jesus spoke again to the people, he said, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
John 8:12 (NIV)

The Light is there. Always.

No matter what. No matter how hard things get. No matter what happens.

Always there.

And even in that moment we remembered this past weekend.

It was a time of darkness. Uncertainty. A time of horrific loss. But also a time where heroes rose up.

It was a cool, sunny Tuesday morning, September 11, 2001. My bride Lynda reached me by phone. I remember her words—

“A plane has crashed into one of the Towers of the World Trade Center…”

Accident or not. We didn’t know.

We prayed. Then hung up.

Minutes later my phone rang again. Lynda’s faint voice trembled as she said—

“A second plane…has hit the south Tower of the World Trade Center…”

We cried and prayed together through the numbness.

The reports kept coming—the Pentagon was smoldering from a plane flying into it, another plane had crashed in an empty field somewhere in Somerset County, near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

Emotions across the Nation and world swirled in confusion, anger and grief.

Through the tears we dug deep for something to cling to, something good, anything, a direction, a faint glimmer of hope.

Yesterday and today, and the days ahead are a time for us to always remember.

A time to remember all those who gave their lives that day in a horrific act of cowardice and war. And all those who gave their lives in heroic acts of courage when others needed them.

A curtain of darkness lowered over all of us at that moment twenty-one years ago.

It has happened throughout history in so many other ways and so many other places.

And it also happens at times in the privacy of our own lives—today, as it has before, and no doubt will again in the days ahead.

Clouds of darkness lower around our lives, and we’re not sure what to do.

Disappointment and despair hit, tragedy, heartache in the loss of a loved one, rejection, falling short and feeling like all hope is gone. It happens, and we can’t see the way out.

Darkness overwhelms our day. Our lives.

But then, through the rubble and smoke, darkness and despair, and the heartache and hopelessness, we hear these words from above—

“I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”

There it is.

The Light. It’s always there.

Darkness loses. The Light prevails.

Remember—the Light of Christ shines in the darkness.

For us. Always.

In His Name–Scott