The daylight is changing because the sun is lower in the sky. The light approaches us at a sharper angle, from the side rather than straight above. And we quickly notice that with this angled light the shadows we cast get bigger. At this time of year, our shadow grows.

Like our outer shadow, our inner shadow also intensifies so often at this time. For Michaelmas is a time for struggles to heat up, a time for the dragon’s fire to burn hot. At Michaelmas, we are challenged every year to acknowledge the dark in us, to try and understand why and how it came to be, to bravely fight the flames of our inner demons. We are challenged to do battle with the beast.

And yet, every human heart is destined to be free, free of battle. For our highest human aim is not war, it is not to be fighters of beasts and shadow, our deepest longing is not wielding weapons of war, our deepest longing is an embrace, a union, a communion with god.

This is why sometimes the true trial, the true testing of our souls is in our capacity to let go of the fight- letting go of our battling the inner beast, letting go of obsessing over why and how we came into this shame, letting go of the problem. This is because so often the dragon’s tactics are simply to get us stuck in not being able to think about anything else but ourselves.

Let us practice then, dear friends, here and now, dropping our weapons, forgetting our beasts, and remembering our destiny. For our truest humanity is not born in a battle stance ready to fight, we become truly human by falling to our knees in the presence of His light.

This contemplation by Rev. Evans is inspired by our true destiny.