Be Still And Know

John 1:4-5 'The Word gave life to everything that was created, and his life brought light to everyone. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness can never extinguish it.' There has been darkness on every page of human history. However, the last century saw darkness on a colossal scale. During the terrible dictatorships of Hitler, Stalin and Mao many tens of millions of people were killed, but we have also seen horrifying amounts of abuse even within the Church. Every day we hear stories of darkness and we feel the weight of pain that is borne by so many people. But there is good news because, however hard people may have tried, they have failed to extinguish the light of Christ. There have been many determined efforts to destroy the Church over the past century, and there still are today. But to those brothers and sisters in North Korea, Somalia, Afghanistan and Pakistan who live under the most oppressive regimes, we can declare that, even though the Church might seem incredibly weak, the light o