Dear God,
\nIn St. Paul\u2019s letter to the Colossians (1:12-20), we read that each of us, your children here on earth, has a trust fund (yah!):<\/p>\n
Brothers and sisters: Let us give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. He delivered us from the power of darkness and transferred us to the kingdom of his beloved Son, in whom we have redemption.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
So on this feast of Christ the King, God, we can all celebrate our inheritance . . . deliverance to the light.
\nSome of us down here may get more excited over a 12-acre waterfront property on Cape Cod, or a 120-foot yacht named after a waitress at Hooters, or a 30-inch flat screen computer monitor than we would over \u2026 light?
\nBut I\u2019m willing to bet any person who has struggled with mental illness would take the light in a heartbeat, because the heart can\u2019t beat without light.
\nThe other night, I picked up a book called “What Once Was White<\/a>,” written by Samantha Abeel, who, at the time she wrote the book, was an adolescent girl in Traverse City, Michigan struggling with learning disabilities and anxiety.
\nHer poem, “Sunrise,” reads,<\/p>\nSilently in the darkness
\npale and hushed
\nI dream about this still cold world.
\nOpening my eyes,
\nwaiting to part the curtain of night,
\nI ascend
\nand the grass, once black, is green
\nstretching towards the sky.
\nThe wind yawns through the trees
\nand I gently caress the darkness from their leaves
\nand whisper “Wake.”
\nThe birds take flight
\ncarrying my light upon their wings.
\nI behold this newly born world
\nand whisper in the ears of those who
\ncovet darkness,
\n“You can\u2019t keep out the light.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\nIt reminded me of the words of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas\u2019s villanelle composed in 1951, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night,”<\/a> which so many of my friends (including Larry Parker<\/a>, Lynne, and other Beyond Blue <\/a>readers) quote as a directive against darkness, as a way of hanging on to the last bit of hope when dreams are smothered by despair:<\/p>\nDo not go gentle into that good night,
\nOld age should burn and rave at close of day;
\nRage, rage against the dying of the light.<\/p><\/blockquote>\nIt seems like I wake up each morning raging against the dying of the light. Every effort in my day from the moment I drink my first cup of coffee onward (because before then doesn\u2019t really count, does it?) is about preserving hope, fighting against the weeds of self-destructive, illogical, and self-delusional thinking\u2014trying my hardest to carve a passageway for light.
\nIf I really am to share in the \u201c”inheritance of the holy ones in light,” as the reading for today says, this is the best news I\u2019ve heard since Dove Chocolate<\/a> came out with its bag of dark chocolate squares. (Go to their website by clicking here to check out their products!<\/a>)
\nI do have one question, however: When, exactly, do I get this this inheritance? I can\u2019t speak for any of your other children, God, but I think it would be nice to have three lump payments . . . at the ages of 35, 43, and 50 \u2026 (or better yet with each hospitalization?) so to allow the enjoyment of some of this light before my death, while keeping intact some guidelines for my brothers and sisters who don\u2019t know how to budget and might spend all their light in one afternoon at Sacs.
\nI know. I know. I know. Your kingdom doesn\u2019t run like that of Donald Trump\u2019s. Benefactors don\u2019t necessarily know they\u2019re in line to inherit massive heaps of light. And the ones most confident that they are usually end up surprised in the end, or at least that\u2019s what you always say in your book, the Bible. Moreover, unlike the estate of billionaire J. Howard Marshall (Marshall v. Marshall)<\/a>, family members aren\u2019t suing each other for shares of light.
\nAnd here\u2019s the part I like, as a depressive battling a few other illnesses: the healthy folks who have been spared the ugliness of despair and suffering don\u2019t really understand what is meant by light. Only the sickies and those who have begged God to take them home early so that they wouldn\u2019t have to go to the trouble of ending their own lives themselves, can truly appreciate the gift of hope, and know instinctively that is a divine sort-of-thing that can\u2019t be manufactured by Procter and Gamble.
\nSt. Paul\u2019s letter to the Colossians goes on to say that in God\u2019s beloved Son “all things hold together.”
\nI\u2019m thinking that includes my bipolar brain? Yes?
\nIf so, I would like to thank you, God. Because I need a lot of holding together. That\u2019s where your light comes in handy. It\u2019s like glue. Super Glue<\/a>. And I\u2019m like the guy in the Super Glue commercial<\/a>, hanging over a construction site swinging my legs, my helmet Super-Glued to the steel scaffolding. That\u2019s us, God.
\nIf I can remember to “rage against the dying of the light,” like Dylan Thomas wrote, and if I can “whisper in the ears of those who covet darkness, ‘You can\u2019t keep out the night,'” then I can wait in hope and in anticipation of my inheritance of light, as well as enjoy the small disbursements of it here on earth.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Dear God, In St. Paul\u2019s letter to the Colossians (1:12-20), we read that each of us, your children here on earth, has a trust fund (yah!): Brothers and sisters: Let us give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. He delivered us…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-inspiration-and-prayer"],"yoast_head":"\n
Dear God: On Inheriting Light - Beyond Blue<\/title>\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.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Dear God: On Inheriting Light - Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Dear God, In St. Paul\u2019s letter to the Colossians (1:12-20), we read that each of us, your children here on earth, has a trust fund (yah!): Brothers and sisters: Let us give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. He delivered us…\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2007-11-26T11:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Beyond Blue\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Dear God: On Inheriting Light - Beyond Blue","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.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Dear God: On Inheriting Light - Beyond Blue","og_description":"Dear God, In St. Paul\u2019s letter to the Colossians (1:12-20), we read that each of us, your children here on earth, has a trust fund (yah!): Brothers and sisters: Let us give thanks to the Father, who has made you fit to share in the inheritance of the holy ones in light. He delivered us…","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html","og_site_name":"Beyond Blue","article_published_time":"2007-11-26T11:00:00+00:00","author":"Beyond Blue","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html","name":"Dear God: On Inheriting Light - Beyond Blue","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website"},"datePublished":"2007-11-26T11:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2007-11-26T11:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75"},"breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/2007\/11\/dear-god-on-inheriting-light.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Dear God: On Inheriting Light"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/","name":"Beyond Blue","description":"Beliefnet Voices - Therese J. Borchard","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/47318cdf8063cc052eccff0c99db4e75","name":"Beyond Blue","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-content\/wphb-cache\/gravatar\/45c\/45c6e619a20a364bd981e9dda64eaa02x96.jpg","caption":"Beyond Blue"},"description":"Therese J. Borchard writes the daily blog, Beyond Blue, on Beliefnet.com. She is the author of Beyond Blue: Surviving Depression & Anxiety and Making the Most of Bad Genes and The Pocket Therapist. You may find her at her personal blog, her website, or you may follow her on Twitter @thereseborchard.","sameAs":["http:\/\/thereseborchard.com"],"url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/author\/tborchard"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=661"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/661\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/beyondblue\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}