Startled in the Darkest Place
by Chaplain Dan Hix
Pay attention as to a lamp shining in a dark place. – II Peter 1:19 (NASB)
All the darkness in the world cannot extinguish the light of a single candle. – Saint Francis of Assisi
Your vocation in life is where your greatest joy meets the world’s greatest need. – Frederick Buechner
Where do you go when you need encouragement; when darkness oppresses, despair unbearable? Where do you go? How about the darkest place of all? Cannot believe I am saying this, but for the last few months, it has been as true as true can be for me. As I think about where I have been most startled, most inspired, most filled with hope and wonder recently, more often than not, it has been on the COVID UNIT, it has been in the darkest place of all. So, I suppose I shouldn’t have been surprised when I cautiously made my journey through the other day and encountered this, my friend, Leonard, the COVID Warrior, decked out in PPE with Christmas lights blinking inside his hood.
When John the gospel writer strained to describe the indescribable, the wonder of the light of God up against the powerful, the insidious darkness he called that resilient, determined light “incomprehensible.” Staring dumbfounded at Leonard last week, thoroughly entertained and profoundly moved, I wondered if perhaps this is at least part of what John meant: you see the light and it is so absurdly out of place, so astounding, so unexpected, so wonderfully disorienting in the oppressive gloom, you cannot quite believe what you are witnessing; it is incomprehensible. But my goodness, is it ever welcomed, because if light is going to be Good News anywhere, it is going to be Good News there, right there in the darkest place of all.
With the assault of a deadly virus Leonard has found his vocation, his sacred, holy labor, startling us, reminding all of us what a great privilege it is to do what we do and to do it together. When with open hearts we use our gifts, invest our passion, even lay down our lives to take care of each other, we are doing God’s work. Just be glad there is no audio and video with this. Leonard has a whole routine involving dancing to Christmas music. “You do what you have to do, Padre, to brighten their day.” Believe me, you do not want to imagine it, but we howled with laughter. Who would have thought in the darkest place of all? Howling laughter. Incomprehensible light. Pay attention.
Dan Hix presently serves as a chaplain with Turkey Creek Medical Center in Knoxville, Tennessee. He is originally from North Carolina and came to Knoxville in the fall of 1988, taking a position with the Baptist Healthsystem of East Tennessee. Dan received his Clinical Pastoral Training at Riverside Methodist Hospital in Columbus, Ohio and North Carolina Baptist Hospital in Winston-Salem, NC. He is endorsed by The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship for hospital chaplaincy. Dan is a graduate of Wake Forest University and Southern Baptist Theological Seminary.
