We may picture life as spiraling forward. We are going along, feeling safe and secure… Then comes the upset, a period of painful disorientation. The crisis may be divorce, loss of a job, move to different location, destructive behavior of a loved one, a challenge to deep beliefs, serious illness, or death. The old way of thinking and doing things comes unglued. Doubt, panic, and great pain may accompany this phase.
Darkness comes when we are forced to let go. We want to hang on but cannot. We are no longer in control. We feel fearful. In the moment when the old dies and the new has not yet begun, there may be a time of terror. "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" (Mark 15:34, also Psalm 22:1-22) We want to run away, but no choice remains except to continue on. We accept the pain and awfulness and feel like we are dying.
It seems it will last forever, but of course, it won't. Within the death of the old lies the seed of hope for the new…
"It is the same too with the resurrection of the dead: what is sown is perishable, but what is raised is imperishable; what is sown is contemptible but what is raised is glorious: what is sown is weak, but what is raised is powerful; what is sown a natural body is raised a spiritual body... Death is swallowed up in victory. Death, where is your victory? Death, where is your sting?" (1 Corinthians 15:42-44, 54-55 NJB)
-- Nancy Regensburger in Walking Through the Waters
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