Passing from Unknown to Known

by Lisa Meier, SoulStream Partner

The birth canal is a dark, tight, and uncomfortable space. For a birthing woman, transition—when the baby moves through the cervix further into the birth canal—is the most intense moment in birth. This is when many cry, “I can’t do this anymore!” and clutch their partner’s hand tightly. She grunts and groans as the supportive voices around her chant, “You’re amazing! You’re doing it!” This moment of passing through the darkness, both for the child in its constricted position and for the woman, who alone must delve deep to find her strength, is painful, overwhelming, and yet essential to bring forth new life.

Our spiritual lives reflect this experience. Like birth, our spiritual formation is marked with seasons of moving through dark, tight, and uncomfortable passages. These experiences are echoed in St. John of the Cross’s Dark Night of the Soul, as well as our reflections on Holy Saturday, imagining Jesus in the tomb, in the dark, alone, waiting.

In my own life, I am currently in a season of transition and the last many months have felt raw and messy as I sit with and sort through the experience of passing from known to unknown. While it is hard, I haven’t lost hope because I know that something is unfolding in the unknowing and unseeing. These tight and uncomfortable spaces are potent with transformative power.

In this analogy, the other side of this narrow darkness is birth (rebirth). The mystery of the dark gives rise to the wonder of new life! This is our hope: A baby is coming! After all that grunting, sweating, clutching, and pushing… whoosh. Here she is, me, born anew. Glory.

And this is our advent hope: in the darkness, in the waiting, in the groaning, and the overwhelm, a baby is coming! He has come in and through the dark; He who is light and life and all things new… whoosh. Here he is. Jesus. Glory!