Learning to Walk in the Dark

Because Sometimes God Shows Up at Night

By: Barbara Brown Taylor

Narrated by: Barbara Brown Taylor

New York Times Bestseller

From the New York Times bestselling author of An Altar in the World, Barbara Brown Taylor’s Learning to Walk in the Dark provides a way to find spirituality in those times when we don’t have all the answers.

Taylor has become increasingly uncomfortable with our tendency to associate all that is good with lightness and all that is evil and dangerous with darkness. Doesn’t God work in the nighttime as well? In Learning to Walk in the Dark, Taylor asks us to put aside our fears and anxieties and to explore all that God has to teach us “in the dark.” She argues that we need to move away from our “solar spirituality” and ease our way into appreciating “lunar spirituality” (since, like the moon, our experience of the light waxes and wanes). Through darkness we find courage, we understand the world in new ways, and we feel God’s presence around us, guiding us through things seen and unseen. Often, it is while we are in the dark that we grow the most.

With her characteristic charm and literary wisdom, Taylor is our guide through a spirituality of the nighttime, teaching us how to find our footing in times of uncertainty and giving us strength and hope to face all of life’s challenging moments.

Beautiful and inspiring.

A wonderful teaching on how to
embrace both the dark and the light of our lives. Embracing the darkness of our life will allow us to live the fullness of our life.

I have a new appreciation for my middle of the night stirrings!

Wisdom for the ages. I listened to this book over 10 years after it's original publication, and found it overflowing with timeless wisdom. Thank you Ms Taylor for your honesty and insights regarding so many "dark" things - emotional, physical and spiritual. Some key takeaways for me were:
1. Willingly embracing, or "sitting with," my middle-of-the-night racing brain. Why not listen and spend a moment with the thoughts of feelings, and see what I can learn.
2. Loss is a part of life. Shoving it's accompanying emotions and spiritual darkness into boxes does not work. "Full Solar" faith / Christianity doesn't work for many of us, and that's okay!
3. The way through is the way.
4. Most of Jesus' most intimate moments with His Father happened in the dark.
I highly recommend this book!

Filling in some gaps

Listening to the author’s experiences as she intentionally seeks invite us into the darkness is a joyful mirror filling some gaps that we might not even know we have! Gaps in understanding that it’s ok to NOT understand everything. It’s a beautiful invitation to be still, be quiet and learn from the darkness. Listening you will soon gather that darkness , in and of itself, is not evil.

Giving permission

I didn’t know what to expect when I began this book, and I’ve not read Barbara Brown Taylor before, but this book came recommended. At times I had no idea where she was going with a story, but then it became immensely profound. I loved how this book was written like a journal; it felt like I was walking alongside Barbara in her journey. And this is the true gift of the book. An invitation into her thoughts, questions, and discoveries, and an invitation into our own.

Lean In

Instead of always catering to the want of running away from darkness. Maybe what we need is to lean into it. There too, God is.