Lights

In W. H. Auden's poem September 1, 1939 (which can be read here), the last lines read as follows:

Defenceless under the night
Our world in stupor lies;
Yet, dotted everywhere,
Ironic points of light
Flash out wherever the Just
Exchange their messages:
May I, composed like them
Of Eros and of dust,
Beleaguered by the same
Negation and despair,
Show an affirming flame.

Yesterday I wrote about Victor Davis Hanson. One of the reasons I admire him is because of the way he does not flinch in the face of the browbeating he receives from questioners at his public appearances.

In this day and age, it is vital to stand up for truth. There are so many who will look you in the eye and say the sun rises in the west, they will say black to our white, they ascribe the most vile of motives to political differences, they gleefully seek the destruction of those who hold what we might call traditional values.

I admire people like Hanson because they are willing to climb out of the foxhole and expose themselves to attacks for what they believe. I admire people like Michelle Malkin, who press on though they regularly have the worst bile and hatred seep into their email inboxes. (WARNING: this link to one of Malkin's posts contains some extreme profanity. I link to it to show what our "political opponents" are capable of. There are so many more examples.) Others, like Hugh Hewitt and La Shawn Barber, are not shy about making their faith a basis for their political beliefs, and that inspires me.

Like Auden wrote, in all this darkness it is necessary that we be lights flashing our messages, though we are beleagured.

In Philippians 2:15 (NIV), the Apostle Paul wrote:

So that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe

I have a master's degree in Astronomy, and as such, this verse always catches my eye. To me, it means this:

Think of a star hanging there in the black of space. It is very clear where the star ends, and where the emptiness of space begins. There is a sharp boundary.

Paul is saying that when the world looks at us Christians, it should be immediately obvious where we end and the world begins. We should not blend into the world, and be indistinguishable from the world.

As a Christian, I want to stand out like that. And as Auden wrote, in the political arena, I want to be one of those affirming flames flickering in a darkened landscape.

This is what keeps me eager to enter into the arena and facing the howling mobs across the sandy ground.