December 22, 2004

  • Winter Solstice

    Today (ok, technically yesterday) is winter solstice. It is
    often called the darkest day of the year and typically signifies the
    beginning of winter. Winter solstice is defined as the moment when the
    sun's apparent path is farthest south from the equator. In the Northern
    Hemisphere, this translates into "the shortest day of the year" or what
    some with a more macabre outlook may call "the darkest day of the
    year".

    Indeed it was a dark day today. Right after lunch, we had a massive
    power outage at work that shut our entire plant down. I tried to
    continue working by the dim glow of emergency lights, but the
    oppressive heat in our building soon became unbearable (no AC). I had
    to go home and accept this loss work day as an act of God or possibly
    the fumblings of man.

    When I got home, I recounted the story of the power outage at work
    and then gleefully shared these trivial tidbits of data about winter
    solstice with my roommate (eddie). When I mentioned the term "darkest
    day", he responded, "it also means that each day will be getting
    brighter and brighter  ... we'll keep having more hours
    of sunlight." As I went for a walk after dinner tonight, I was thinking
    about my roommate's comment. Isn't it strange that the darkest day, the
    day that signifies the start of winter, would also represent
    an inflection point where our days begin growing longer and longer.
    Could it be that our darkened day might also be an inflection
    point in the workings of God in our life?

    (a note for non-math folks: An inflection point
    is typically defined as the point at which a curve changes from convex
    to concave or vice versa. A curve has the maximum slope at it's
    inflection points)

Comments (6)

  • Wow... I'm glad you made all those connections, Dave. Sometimes you share some very reflective thoughts that connect some fairly mundane happenings/sayings into meaningful messages. It's cool. My roommates never say anything that meaningful. Of course my roommates never say anything at all since they're all stuffed... *shrug* Oh well. At least they're not liberals.

  • awesome. what a thought!  even in the darkest day, there is hope of brighter days to come... thanks for that.

    on anothernote:  man, you're one of those workaholics! i would've gone to the beach. haha. :)

  • :working: After having several heated (in more ways than one) discussions with some colleagues on another site, I did eventually go home ... and just for the record, I was at the beach later that day.

  • That is the hope I constantly cling to ... thanks for the analogy!

  • oh man, i love inflection points...

    i remember talking to a friend once about bridges, a conversation i was reminded of after reading your post. we were listening to simon & garfunkel's "bridge over troubled water" and we started talking about bridges. i thought... hrm. when i think of bridges i think of connection - a safe passage across a deep chasm. i also think (sadly) of someone trying to commit suicide.

    it really struck me, though, that when people are faced with crushing crushing circumstances, where the soul feels the darkest, or the most distant from reality or love... we either recognize our need for God and reach out for his goodness to possibly find us...(or we just believe that maybe, just maybe life could get better) or we conclude that God (or hope) is a disillusionment, that hope is impossible, that the current pain is unbearable.

    so the same point where someone could cross from death to life, from darkness to light... someone might choose to jump off, out of hopelessness or focus on pain. it was interesting to me because i realized... the person who is at such a crossroads in life, coming from a really dark place - the one who chooses to walk the bridge places their faith in the bridge to carry them to better places - their focus is on the strength or the availability of the bridge.  the one who chooses to jump places their focus on themselves, and focusing on the depth of their pain and the knowledge of their weakness, or the fear of the unknown, chooses to control the unknown, even unto death.

    it's amazing how at these crossroads, so much - whether growth or death... hinges on our belief in whether the Lord is good.

    so maybe it's like...Jesus is our bridge! it doesn't matter how feeble we are or whether we're crawling or running across... it's his sure foundation that supports our walk. it's the foundation that matters, not our ability to walk. but when we focus on our ability to make the crossover from death to life... all we feel is our flailing, all we see is the distance - there is no bridge in this image - and it's easy to feel abandoned and rejected, and to hoard bitterness and fear.

    whew, not sure if all that was very well put... but i really like your thought about darkness and increasing light... God is surely doing something.... whether we perceive it or not...

  • :geek: thanks natalie for your mini-post within my post. =) I know I've said this before, but I really love your xanga name ... maybe it's because I didn't realize what it meant till like a year later. thanks for coming over tonight and playing with all of us.

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