Facing the Darkness Within
The angel of the LORD encamps around those who fear him, and delivers them.
(Psalm 34:7)
Most people want to avoid discomfort, especially the pain within us. We drink alcohol or even take drugs to elude our inner ache. More subtly, but no less numbing, we pretend our disquiet does not exist, allowing it to be insidiously grown unchecked. In his book, The Tears of Things, the Roman Catholic spiritualist Richard Rohr describes it thusly: "The French Anthropologist and literary critic Rene Girard wrote that the Bible is unique in all world literature in spotting this universal human avoidance of our own dark side."
Since the Bible is the center of our faith life and the way we glimpse the nature of God, and the Bible speaks to the dark side of our human condition, we must address the dark side within souls. First, we should acknowledge that the dark side is multidimensional. The darkness within has a psychological effect. Our moods, beliefs, thoughts, and other inner struggles are one area that influences the darkness within. Working on our psychological health is a spiritual practice.
The dark side also reveals itself in our actions. Our psychological reflections either intensify or reduce our damaging actions. When we are psychologically immature, others suffer because our inner voice directs our outward actions. The dark side is powerful and brilliant. The dark's power resides in our emotional and spiritual limitations—the dark feeds on our emotional weakness. The dark is clever because it subtly weaves its way into every indented part of our lives and manipulates and controls much of who we are if we do not remain diligent.
As people of faith, we must be brave and face the dark side's reality within us. Rather than fear, our call is to trust God to work with us in facing and overcoming the dark within. God wipes us clean over and over again. God calls us to recognize the need to heal and be washed in God's baptismal waters. Then, we will be freed from the darkness of bitterness, hatred, and despair. Work diligently, and trust that God will make us new each day. We are restored when we do the daily, psychological, and spiritual work of growing beyond the darkness within.