Blessed Fourth Sunday of Advent, Digital Neighbors and Friends across Locals and Substack! Today’s messianic title: Radiant Dawn. I imagine that if we were creatures of hearing, sound would matter more than sight. But we are what we are—the darkness holds both wonder and fear. I suspect for our predecessors there were many more dangers and fears of the dark when we were still an option on the food chain for other carnivores. I mean, we can still be on the menu—watch The Ghost and the Darkness or The Grey; we might be on top, but we aren’t unchallenged. Imagine being by your campfire at night and hearing hungry nature out there. Dawn brought degrees of comfort and certainty.

Light—illumination—clarity; or darkness—obscurity—confusion. I know what I prefer more of in my life, even if some of the things clarified to me aren’t to my liking. I used to think that the desire for clarity was sort of a factory setting for us primates, but I am no longer certain of that. A few years ago I had a recurring theme in my sermons about the lies that please us versus the truths that save us. Discernment is essential to distinguishing between the two, since we are so fallible and prone to so many blind spots in our reasoning. Lies that please us will smother the spirit, enslave us, and make us believe that slavery is freedom and that questioning is crazy. There are already too many signs that we have eaten more than our fair share of lies that please us without critically questioning them.

Hard truths that will make you better after struggle are not preferable to soft lies that comfort you into personal abdication and complacent resignation. When I was younger I used to think that was the exception among people—that most of us agree that hard truths are a better path to tread than living with known lies that are pleasing or comforting. I tend to think the opposite now. Many will settle for the lies that please them as long as there is enough comfort and not too much fear. Life will be boring and probably devoid of meaning, but at least there is another distraction of some sort around the corner.

That does not mean that it is all doom and gloom, but if you are a person striving to wrestle with reality instead of ingesting a torrent of lies, you will not have an easy life. A life of faith or at least meaning is a mountain, there is a hard climb to arrive at the summit. No one starts there. Sure, life at the base is comfortable, but the summit has more to reveal to us—about our world, its meaning, and about ourselves as we strive through the ascent. I suspect you all know that—you are here, after all. Any or all of us could have remained on the mushroom-management communities of Big Tech: free to use, but not free to question; free to look like an individual, a person, but don’t think apart from the herd. You have the freedom to conform and comply like a real liberated soul. The BIGS (government & tech) will give you their goodies for free—all you have to do is behave. For the moment we may have a break from un-personing, de-platforming, and personal ruin if you don’t behave, but don’t forget the winter of Sleepy Joe. It can return the next time the Dims or their Repuli-con clones are back in power.

The Radiant Dawn—a new day, new opportunities, the ability to see things clearly, maybe for the first time, or maybe for a renewed round at climbing toward the truths you have discerned in life. Happy climbing, my friends! I hope there is plenty of light in your life to show a clear path forward to your goals. I hope there is plenty of perseverance to keep you focused on the path and the goal, as it is slow and the climb is often hard. You can’t change the past; you can understand it, integrate it, atone for it, but you can’t change anything about it except how you think and feel about it. The radiant dawn can bring clarity to your future and open the possibility of seeing the past in a new light as well. Faith is always about clarity for me. It is not an escape from reality; it is not about just hoping for Heaven and a benevolent God at the end of the story. It is about the climb and all that I will experience and learn while I am pursuing the Truth Who is. Blessed Sunday, Digital Neighbors!