{"id":2960,"date":"2016-11-28T08:05:10","date_gmt":"2016-11-28T13:05:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/?p=2960"},"modified":"2016-11-28T11:19:25","modified_gmt":"2016-11-28T16:19:25","slug":"advent-kicking-your-darkness","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/","title":{"rendered":"Advent: Kicking your Darkness"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"Photo<\/a>
Photo Credit: Jonathan Ryan<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Since I first heard the song in college, I\u2019ve meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn<\/a>. It\u2019s a phrase that I\u2019ve considered tattooing over my heart. \u00a0In the song \u201cLovers in a Dangerous Time,\u201d<\/em> he sings that you\u2019ve got to \u201ckick the darkness until it bleeds daylight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Advent is a time where we talk about the light shining in the darkness and the darkness not understanding it. But there have been times in my life when I\u2019ve felt nothing but darkness. And I\u2019ve understood it much better than the light trying to shine into my heart.<\/p>\n

My first Advent\/Christmas season in South Bend as a divorced dad living away from my kids was one of those times. \u00a0I didn\u2019t break out the candles. My Christmas decorations and creche lay in a box. There didn\u2019t seem to be any Christmas in me.<\/p>\n

A friend kept badgering me to put up a tree, but I ignored her. Finally, one night, staring at that shitty grey carpet of my apartment, I couldn\u2019t take it anymore. I ran out to Lowe\u2019s, the only place that had trees that late in the season. I put on the Sufjan Stevens Christmas album and decorated my little Charlie Brown tree with my nerdy ornaments of Indiana Jones, Chewbacca, and my favorite, a much ridiculed Snoopy with\u00a0his tongue sticking out and one antler jutting out of his head.<\/p>\n

Turning off the rest of the lights, I sat on the couch to stare at my tree. The red, green and blue lights glimmered and flickered in the dark. I kicked my personal darkness until it bled Christmas light.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s the real challenge of Advent in our lives, especially for those of us who are sick unto death, either spiritually, emotionally or physically. Darkness surrounds us. For some of us, it\u2019s the darkness of sickness, a bad marriage or severe problems with our children. Or, many of us feel the darkness that has descended on our country in this election cycle. \u00a0It\u2019s not so much that Donald Trump, an absurd reality star who has appeared in Playboy and on Howard Stern, will represent our country. No, it\u2019s that this election cut open the American heart to expose its wormy, Lovecraftian middle, ruled by one guiding emotion: fear of the dark.<\/p>\n

We\u2019ve seen that fear of the dark causes us to embrace the darkness in us. But those of us who claim to follow Christ are called to fight that darkness. Very often, we don\u2019t know how, so we keep striking out in random ways without thinking deeply about where we can best help. We overextend ourselves trying to be involved in as many causes as we can until our help becomes useless.<\/p>\n

A protestant pastor once told me that recognizing what you\u2019re not good at is just as important as finding out what you ARE good at doing. When we start kicking the dark, it\u2019s important to figure out where our kick will do the most good. For me, I\u2019ve realized that I\u2019m good an coming up with ideas, writing and teaching. That\u2019s pretty much it. This excludes me from running for office, being a scientist or building beautiful things. But I can kick the darkness through words, speaking and writing them. Sick Pilgrim is my vocation in every true sense of the word. It\u2019s how I do my part to kick the dark so it bleeds light.<\/p>\n

A few years ago, I was introduced to the work of Cormac McCarthy through his heart wrenching dystopian novel, The Road<\/em>.<\/a>\u00a0It\u2019s a story of a father and son making their way across an America that is no longer recognizable. The father keeps telling the son that they carry the fire, because they are the good guys. In the story, this means they won\u2019t shoot people on sight, eat dead people or rob. But, it takes on a deeper meaning as the story unfolds: the fire is humanity, the Image of God, and, I don\u2019t think it\u2019s too much to say, the secret fire of the Holy Spirit.<\/p>\n

In one scene, the father tells the son to \u201ckeep a little fire burning; however small, however hidden.\u201d \u00a0My prayer for all of us is that we figure out how to use our little fires, burning\u00a0the dark, making\u00a0it bleed light.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Since I first heard the song in college, I\u2019ve meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn. It\u2019s a phrase that I\u2019ve considered tattooing over my heart. \u00a0In the song \u201cLovers in a Dangerous Time,\u201d he sings that you\u2019ve got to \u201ckick the darkness until it bleeds daylight.\u201d Advent is a time where […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1351,"featured_media":2976,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1626,3,13,15,1087],"tags":[1615,1629,1628,129,53,1627],"class_list":["post-2960","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-advent","category-catholicism","category-confession","category-pilgrims","category-popular-piety","tag-advent","tag-christmas-trees","tag-cormac-mccarthy","tag-divorce","tag-donald-trump","tag-the-road"],"yoast_head":"\nAdvent: Kicking your Darkness<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Since I first heard the song in college, I've meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn. It's a phrase that I've considered tattooing\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Advent: Kicking your Darkness\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Since I first heard the song in college, I've meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn. It's a phrase that I've considered tattooing\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sick Pilgrim\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-11-28T13:05:10+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-11-28T16:19:25+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/615\/2016\/11\/12920489_637840886370054_5004538241714272799_n.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"960\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jonathan Ryan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jonathan Ryan\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/\",\"name\":\"Advent: Kicking your Darkness\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-11-28T13:05:10+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-11-28T16:19:25+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#\/schema\/person\/9d8e2419586ac4fa0e11d59d9baecb60\"},\"description\":\"Since I first heard the song in college, I've meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn. It's a phrase that I've considered tattooing\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Advent: Kicking your Darkness\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/\",\"name\":\"Sick Pilgrim\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#\/schema\/person\/9d8e2419586ac4fa0e11d59d9baecb60\",\"name\":\"Jonathan Ryan\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc9940f5380f0dcebd6152df7eb23637?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc9940f5380f0dcebd6152df7eb23637?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jonathan Ryan\"},\"description\":\"Jonathan Ryan is a novelist, writer and co-founder of Sick Pilgrim. His paranormal series can be found in book outlets everywhere from Open Road Media. Jonathan currently lives in the Midwest where he works at a local parish.\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/author\/geekgoesrogue\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Advent: Kicking your Darkness","description":"Since I first heard the song in college, I've meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn. It's a phrase that I've considered tattooing","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Advent: Kicking your Darkness","og_description":"Since I first heard the song in college, I've meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn. It's a phrase that I've considered tattooing","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/","og_site_name":"Sick Pilgrim","article_published_time":"2016-11-28T13:05:10+00:00","article_modified_time":"2016-11-28T16:19:25+00:00","og_image":[{"width":720,"height":960,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/615\/2016\/11\/12920489_637840886370054_5004538241714272799_n.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Jonathan Ryan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jonathan Ryan","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/","name":"Advent: Kicking your Darkness","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-11-28T13:05:10+00:00","dateModified":"2016-11-28T16:19:25+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#\/schema\/person\/9d8e2419586ac4fa0e11d59d9baecb60"},"description":"Since I first heard the song in college, I've meditated on a lyric by Canadian folk musician Bruce Cockburn. It's a phrase that I've considered tattooing","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/2016\/11\/advent-kicking-your-darkness\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Advent: Kicking your Darkness"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/","name":"Sick Pilgrim","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#\/schema\/person\/9d8e2419586ac4fa0e11d59d9baecb60","name":"Jonathan Ryan","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc9940f5380f0dcebd6152df7eb23637?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/dc9940f5380f0dcebd6152df7eb23637?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Jonathan Ryan"},"description":"Jonathan Ryan is a novelist, writer and co-founder of Sick Pilgrim. His paranormal series can be found in book outlets everywhere from Open Road Media. Jonathan currently lives in the Midwest where he works at a local parish.","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/author\/geekgoesrogue\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1351"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2960"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2960\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2976"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2960"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2960"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/sickpilgrim\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2960"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}