Learning to Walk in the Dark: Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night

by Barbara Brown Taylor

When Christian teaching offered me an answer—that I was caught up in the fundamental struggle between spirit and flesh—it also offered me a strategy for victory. If I would commit myself to following Jesus, then every day, in every way, he would help me turn from the dark to live with him in the light. Of course, my language evolved through the years as I became more mature in faith, but the essential worldview did not change. Even after I found a church that affirms the goodness of creation as much as any I know, Sunday worship still turned on the axis of blood sacrifice, which made the death of the body the way of eternal life. After I became ordained, I led the congregation in achingly beautiful prayers thanking God for the gifts of the earth, the church, and the Spirit—but also in prayers asking God to deliver us from the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil. Since this language matched much of the language in scripture, it blended in. Plus, it seemed to work for a lot of people, the