B: BLACK HOLE

Ever since the term “black hole” was coined in 1964, these large and mysterious gravitational “sink holes” spread throughout the universe have been used as a metaphor for ultimate evil. Science fiction writers love black holes because they offer story lines far wilder than sheer fantasy! The gravitational pull of these space-time “sucking” machines is so strong that nothing, not even light, escapes from them. Black holes represent epic and cataclysmic annihilation, and any space traveller would know to steer their starship clear! If you didn’t do so, and you were drawn past the event horizon (the point of no return), you would actually be “spaghettified” (yes, that’s a science term for the effect of the tidal forces of gravity) as you were sucked in forever, and no traces of your light would escape! BUT, as I often do, I get a completely different take-home message from the existence of black holes! They speak to me of an amazing cosmic economy which includes not only new beginnings but also much-needed ENDINGS as well! Black holes testify to me of a fully resourced universe with a flexible fabric that allows for rearrangement and recycling—a universe that gives “do-overs”—a universe that is laced with grace throughout its fabric! Sometimes the greatest enemy of progress is old things, old choices, old self-defeating behaviors and old memories of wrong. Black holes remind me that the universe provides for complete disposal where even the light once generated (as well as the quantum information) cannot escape to haunt me! Black holes speak to me of the possibilities of ultimate freedom from the negatives. Most of us, had we planned the cosmos, would have only considered the placement of light! The genius of God is that He understood and made room for a deep reality-bending darkness as well! The universe is wired with flexibility and the possibility for restart—it is not fragile. Spacetime can bend around my mistakes and mishaps and actually deform them if need be so that they are folded so densely upon themselves that they are no longer available to be examined, or even viewed! Once they cross the event horizon, they are, for all intents and purposes, gloriously GONE! So, the question is never: Is there hope for a new beginning? The question is only ever: Will I let go? And therein lies the “spaghettification” factor that we all must experience as the door into grace: The quickest way into this spiritual odyssey of “leaving it all behind” is also the process that will stretch you the most! FORGIVENESS is the portal into God’s economy of ENDING for the sake of new beginnings—and that forgiveness must be both extended as well as received! The human will is so incredibly powerful that without the choice to let go, even the giant sucking motion of grace won’t overcome the energies of chosen bitterness. If we keep on steering our starship away from the “altar of dark star”, we can cycle forever in asteroid belts unnecessarily! (Forgive me, I went a little far with the metaphor….) Grace not only means bright light, but also deep darkness to the negative, corrupted, and destructive--destroying the destroyer--placing things so far away that they cannot be re-examined. Surely that is what it means to be made new. The universe is shouting that it is possible!