When things feel dark, there is light up ahead.
Hi everyone! This is Paul Angone, the creator of this blog All Groan Up and author of the books 101 Secrets For Your Twenties and 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties.
I’ve been deep at work on a new book so haven’t written at All Groan Up in awhile. But I want to send a note of hope and encouragement to all of us as we face a season and time in our world’s history like no other.
Where I live we are being told to stay in place for three weeks. Many of you are facing a similar reality as we all attempt to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
Yet, as we face uncertainties. As we feel alone and nervous about the future. The struggle and challenges are real. Yet, I also believe the hope and the light ahead are real too.
Hope During The Bleakest Hours of WWII
I keep thinking back to World War II and a speech Winston Churchill gave in 1941. The Nazi’s had just defeated France. The United States had not yet entered the war. England looked like it might be destroyed. Terrible bombings shook England at night, leaving a nation locked up in their houses, afraid, alone, uncertain.
Yet, when hope felt lost, Winston Churchill got up in front of the nation and the world, and said these powerful words:
These are not dark days; these are great days—the greatest days our country has ever lived; and we must all thank God that we have been allowed, each of us according to our stations, to play a part in making these days memorable in the history of our race.”
Churchill knew dark days.
Through his lifetime the battle with depression that he called his “black dog,” to his political defeat that sent him in near political exile for the ten years leading up to the war, to only face Hitler and the near destruction of England.
Winston Churchill knew how dark darkness could get. Yet, he made a call for a collective change of perspective. To not see the days ahead as dark, but as a great opportunity for great people to do great things for a great cause.
To be light in the darkness.
Churchill reminded the world of the collective purpose in the struggle, instead of just focusing on the pain.
Churchill was not speaking these words retroactively, looking back at the course of events that led them to victory.
Churchill spoke these words in the face of utter destruction. Yet, he foresaw a radically different outcome than what the current facts at hand were shouting.
He spoke into the face of destruction with hope and purpose. Then, he worked with all his heart to create that reality.
Let the Dark Be Light
There is hope, even in what appears hopeless. The tunnels darkness might feel unending. Yet, it will end. We will step into the light and fresh air again.
Let us take to heart Churchill’s cry to a generation embroiled in the toughest, yet greatest, days imaginable:
Never give in. Never give in. Never, never, never, never—in nothing, great or small, large or petty—never give in, except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force. Never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy.”
No matter how dark the darkness feels, there is always hope.
When it’s dark, that just means it’s time for light-bearers to rise up for the world to see. For your home to see. For your kids and family to see.
When it’s dark, that’s an opportunity to bring the light. Now is the time to bring the light.
Much love and hope to everyone!
Paul Angone
PS —
Click here to listen to the inspirational four-minute speech from Winston Churchill.
This article was adapted from my book 101 Questions You Need to Ask in Your Twenties (and let’s be honest, your thirties too).
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