It’s been a cold, long winter.
Like my kids, I smiled at the first snowflakes in November. Through December, I appreciated the extra opportunities for shovelling; I needed the exercise. Then January came, and the Christmas lights came down. The past two weeks have been some of the coldest on record. My face hurts when I go outside. It’s dark, too dark. It’s that time of year.
The Season of Darkness
Around 15% of Canadians will report at least a mild case of Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD). It’s a form of depression due to reduced sunlight. Many of us find artificial lights inadequate at stemming the sadness which comes from dark winters.
We’ve just experienced around nine hours of daylight in southern Ontario. Most of Canada experiences less. By June, we’ll see over fifteen hours of sunlight. We yearn for summer.
We might describe this as a medical illness based upon material factors. Doctors will note the lack of vitamin D, our reduced serotonin levels, and the way in which our bodies respond naturally to sunrises and sunsets with wakefulness and sleepiness, respectively. On one level, this is biological.
At a deeper level, reduced sunlight means a reduced view of the world that God made to be enjoyed. Genesis 2:9 says, “the Lord God made all kinds of trees grow out of the ground—trees that were pleasing to the eye and good for food.”
While God made both the sun and the moon, he calls the moon the “lesser light (Gen. 1:16). Unfortunately, the moon is often blocked by clouds and light pollution, reducing the natural beauty of nighttime, which used to be so common to the human experience. I wonder if David wrote, “the sky above proclaims God’s handiwork” in darkness (Psalm 19:1).
At both the material and metaphysical levels, light is a gift. We can go to our doctors for help on the material side. But we should also go deeper into the issue of darkness.
Calendars in Church and Culture
According to the Western church calendar, we are in “Ordinary Time.” Many pastors value the church calendar as a way of regulating our annual rhythms around God and redemptive history.
Likewise, Canada has its own cultural calendar, with some similarities and differences, whether that be “May Two-Four Weekend,” Canada Day, or the Christmas season.
In my context in Kitchener-Waterloo, most churches recognize that it is unwise to start a sermon series in the summer which stretches into October. This is because many university and college students leave our city in the summer and return for a new semester around Labour Day weekend.
It is appropriate to match our church rhythms to our cultural context in this way. Many of Israel’s festivals corresponded to farming cycles. Perhaps Canadians need to think about planning around our own.
Given the rise in depression during this time of year, pastors in Canada (and other northern countries in the world) should consider how some volunteers may be more likely to experience burnout during this time, when many of us are more sleepy than usual. I also think explicit talk of SAD should be encouraged. We need to recognize our sadness and talk about it.
Speaking of Sadness
Nothing reveals the weakness of mind more than not knowing the misery of man.
Some give too much attention to mental health. Others, not enough.
Four hundred years ago, prior to an era of social media causing depression and smartphones numbing our ability to fall asleep, Blaise Pascal wrote this:
Nothing is so insufferable to man as to be completely at rest, without passions, without business, without diversion, without study. He then feels his nothingness, his forlornness, his insufficiency, his dependence, his weakness, his emptiness. There will immediately arise from the depth of his heart weariness, gloom, sadness, fretfulness, vexation, despair.
You are not unusual for feeling sad. You are human.
As Kelly Kapic notes, to be human is to depend on God, depend on the world, and depend on others. But due to sin, our relationship with God is broken, the world is cursed, and those around us can cause us more harm than good. To be sad is to join in the sorrow of creation, which groans for something more (Rom. 8:22).
Pastors should speak plainly about the sadness which should be expected in this world, whether we are grieving over our sin (2 Cor. 7:10), weeping with those who weep (Rom 12:15), or just having a hard day.
Let Light Shine Out of Darkness
We should “be wretched and mourn and weep” (James 4:9). This is good. And yet, we should also be joyful! The entirety of the Christian life is one of painful pleasure, as we await a sunrise to make all things new. That is the great secret of sadness: when we properly recognize it for what it is, we see our need for God, and the great hope of his Son, the light of the world.
Augustine, praying to God 1600 years ago, says:
For wherever the human soul turns itself, other than to you, it is fixed in sorrows, even if it is fixed upon beautiful things external to you and external to itself, which would nevertheless be nothing if they did not have their being from you.
It is no surprise that “darkness” is synonymous with sadness. Christians have a God in whom there is no darkness (1 John 1:5). As believers receive this light, they become it, being transformed into his image. Sadness remains, but it does not remain alone, and it does not remain forever.
The light overcomes the darkness. And the Father of lights will not forget his children.
