Christians own the night

Here is a pretty good metaphor from a graduation speech by President Chuck Kelley at the New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary :

“As we are seeing all these reasons for despair and discouragement and all this sense of panic and fear that is sobering men at every level of our society, there is one thing we know as believers: That as ministers of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, we own the night.”

“Owning the night” is part of American military parlance. One of the major reasons, Kelley said, that the American forces are among the most effective in the history of the world is night-vision capability, the ability to fight and win in the midst of darkness.

“They have done this not by eliminating night, but by subduing it, by discovering that even in the night, there is a light that allows you to see,” Kelley said. “What is true on the battlefields of the world is of far greater significance in our lives and for your purpose.”

Kelley challenged future ministers of the Gospel to remember what happens when cultural darkness descends as it has throughout history and as it has into every human heart. Humanity longs for hope, the kind of hope found in Christ alone.

“People discover what they need is not money. What they need is not a sense of total security, what they need is some kind of hope to which they can cling. What they need in the midst of the night is light,” Kelley said. “That’s exactly what we have to bring into this world.

“We own the night. We are able to function in the night. We are able to live and find joy and confidence and peace within the night, not because we banish the darkness, but because we are able to subdue it with the light of the world,” he added. “The light of the world is Jesus Christ. We have this light to bear at this time that we are losing.”