Where The Light Is Better
A Meditation by Rev. Cameron Trimble
“Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen.” — Luke 24:5
A Sufi story…
A man is on his hands and knees under a streetlamp, searching.
Another passerby stops. “What are you looking for?”
“My key,” the man says.
The passerby kneels down to help. Together, they search the ground, moving their hands through the small circle of light. After a while, the passerby asks, “Are you sure you lost it here?”
The man gestures toward the darkness beyond the lamp. “No. I lost it over there.”
The passerby sits back. “Then why are you looking here?”
“Because the light is better here.”
This Sufi teaching story is old, but it doesn’t feel far away. It feels like a mirror.
We spend hours following the war in Iran, watching the strikes, the retaliation, and the slow spread of a conflict that no one seems able to stop. We read about burning refineries and tighter shipping lanes, knowing it won’t stay contained. Soon, it will affect supply chains and show up in higher and higher prices of fuel and food.
We talk about corruption, what’s being hidden, who is being protected, and whether accountability still exists. We share bits of reporting, trying to figure out what’s true and what has been kept out of sight.
We argue about federal power, the reach of Homeland Security, and the presence of agents in places that once felt civilian. We wonder if this is really protection, or if something else is happening right in front of us.
Beneath it all, the same questions keep coming up: How bad will this get? Who is really in charge? Can we trust what we’re told?
All of this happens where the light is bright. Information never stops. Analysis comes right away. We can stay informed, involved, and ready to respond.
But it is not where the key was lost.
The key was lost in the conditions that made all of this possible, and those are harder to face.
It was lost in an economy that relies on extraction and calls it growth, where whole regions can be destabilized to secure energy and still be described as a tactical need. It was lost in political systems that reward loyalty over truth, where corruption isn’t a glitch but a feature, managed as long as it’s useful.
It was lost as state power slowly expanded. Most people didn’t agree to it directly, but learned to accept it, bit by bit, until what once seemed unthinkable started to feel normal.
It was lost as accountability faded, where those in power rarely face consequences for the harm they cause, and the rest of us slowly learn to expect less.
It was lost in us. In how we adapt to things we once would have resisted. In how quickly we move past what should stop us. In how we live with contradictions, calling out injustice while still benefiting from the systems that cause it.
These are not well-lit places.
They are harder to face because they don’t offer simple answers. They involve more than one side. They ask more from us than just paying attention. They ask us to reckon with them.
So we stay where the light is better.
We stay focused on updates, arguments, and analysis, circling what’s easy to see, while the deeper work waits in places we’d rather avoid.
The Sufi teachers didn’t want to make us feel foolish. They wanted to show us how we avoid what really matters.
The key is not lost where the light is better.
It is lost where it was lost.
If we want to find a future that’s more honest, accountable, and humane, we’ll need to leave the circle of light and step into the places where the truth is harder to see, but still there.
The good news is that we don’t have to solve everything to start. We just have to be willing to step, even for a moment, beyond the circle of light.
We are in this together,
Cameron
Reflection Questions
Where do you notice yourself staying in “well-lit” conversations that feel active but do not lead to deeper truth or change?
What is one reality, personal or communal, that you sense you have been avoiding because it feels harder to face?
Where might you be invited to step beyond the familiar and into deeper clarity?
A Prayer for the Day
A Prayer for the Courage to Step Beyond the Light
God of truth and mercy, You meet us not only in what is clear, but in what we would rather not see. Give us the courage to face what is real— Where we have grown accustomed to what diminishes life, restore our clarity. Where we have turned away to protect ourselves, restore our strength. Hold us steady when the ground feels uncertain. Guide us toward what is honest, what is just, what is still possible. And remind us, again and again, that even in the dark, we are not alone. Amen.
Spiritual Practice
Stepping Beyond the Circle
Today, notice where your attention naturally goes. Pay attention to what feels immediate, visible, and easy to engage: news, commentary, analysis, conversation. There is nothing wrong with this, but do not stop there.
Then ask yourself: What am I not looking at?
Choose one small step beyond the “circle of light.”
It might be:
Initiating a conversation you have been avoiding
Reading a perspective that unsettles your assumptions
Naming a truth, out loud or in writing, that you have softened
Do not try to resolve it. Just stay present. Even a few minutes of honest attention begins to shift what is possible.
Upcoming Events That Might Be of Interest…
My team and I launched a new experiment we are calling “The Commons.” It’s an online space centered around communities of practice: groups of people who share a common concern, set of problems, or passion for a topic, and deepen their knowledge and expertise by interacting on an ongoing basis. Join the community here.
TODAY!!! March 26, 2026, 7–8:30pm ET – FREE WEBINAR - I’ll be joined by Ruth Dearnley, OBE, Founder and President of Stop the Traffik, for “Stop the Exploitation of Children: Disrupting Human Trafficking at Its Source.” As Board Chair of Stop the Traffik USA, this work is deeply personal to me. We cannot rescue our way out of trafficking; we must prevent exploitation by disrupting the systems and financial flows that profit from vulnerability—and congregations can play a powerful role in building community resilience. Ruth will share how technology and data are exposing trafficking networks globally, and how congregations can lead local awareness and prevention campaigns that reduce vulnerability and protect children. I hope you’ll join us. Learn more and register here.
March 28, 2026 - No Kings Protest! We are marching again. Mark your calendars and find the nearest protest site. Make your protest signs. Knit your red hats. Get your water bottles and sunscreen ready. We head back into the streets for peaceful protest on behalf of a more just world. I'll see you out there. Register here.
March 31 and April 7, 2026, 7-8:30pm ET - Rev. Dr. Matthew Fox and I are hosting another 4-part series on “Visions for the Common Good.” This series will include sessions with David Abram (cultural ecologist), Lynne Twist (global activist), Randy Woodley (Cherokee scholar and wisdom-keeper), and yours truly! All sessions are recorded, and you will get the link if you can’t make it. Learn more here.
I drafted a Strategic Framework for Congregations as we move into the coming years of increased authoritarianism around the world. If interested, you can download it here.
Fun Things My Friends Are Up To…
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The Benedictine Sisters of Erie are hosting a webinar with my friend, Fr. Adam Bucko and Katie Grodon April 14th! Katie and Adam will explore how new expressions of monastic community are bridging this ancient tradition to contemporary seekers in ways that enable more people to commit to lives of prayer, service, and transformation, in and beyond the monastery. Register for free to receive the zoom link.
If you are a leader or member of a congregation looking for consulting support in visioning, planning, hiring or staffing, please consider Convergence.
Beautiful reninder. And possibly even, the key has been lost in our own pocket where we never think to look.
Amen.