In his sermon, “Listening to the Dark,” Eugene Lowry comforts listeners from the story of God speaking in a still, small voice to the despairing Elijah:
“In the midst of the darkness of the cave finally came this voice. The voice came up close to the ear and whispered. And the voice said, ‘What are you doing here?’
“That’s one of the most remarkable passages in all of Scripture. What do you mean, ‘What are you doing HERE?’ Do you notice what the voice did not say? It did not say, ‘What are you doing THERE?’ – as looking on to the scene of the cave saying, “What are you doing there, Elijah? Why are you there?’ We’re nothing talking THERE, we’re talking HERE.
“God is in the dark. In fact, God is bigger than the dark. That’s the promise. It is God’s dark. God is the Creator of the dark. And the promise is that God will be present… And so with the confidence of the children of the Most High God, revealed in Christ, we may dare to endure the dark.”