The year is 1868. Ulysses S. Grant is president following the tumultuous years of the American Civil War, Queen Victoria sits on the British throne, the typewriter has just been patented, and the world’s first traffic lights have been installed outside Parliament in London… but we aren’t heading to America or London, instead we are traveling to India. The date is August 18, 1868, and crowds have gathered in the streets and fields of Guntur, India. Scientists have traveled from all over the world to what is called ‘the path of totality’. A narrow band along the surface of the earth that will experience a total solar eclipse. Guntur served as a particularly useful location due to the likelihood of clear skies in the rural open expanse of Guntur and the climactic conditions in that part of the world looked favorably on a good observation of the eclipse.
At the time, India was also part of the British Empire, making it an easily accessible location for the eclipse observation teams of the day. The British, also keen to take advantage of modern astronomy, had built observation stations along the path of totality, allowing astronomers to coordinate their efforts to gather high quality data as the sun became eclipsed by the moon.
And all of those factors, led to an avid 19th century astronomer named Pierre Janssen (Zhan-sen) to eagerly await the moment of totality, where he would observe a bright yellow line that would change science forever.
I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.
This is the third in a ten-part series on learning to love the Lord (and our neighbor) with all our soul. The soul is that part of you that is eternal. After death, after life, all you will be left with is your soul to carry on into eternity. If you don’t learn to love with all your soul, you won’t have any love left when life is over.
Here in my hometown of Louisville, Kentucky, we just missed the path of totality for a 2024 solar eclipse. Our Indiana neighbors to the north enjoyed 100% view of the eclipse, while we only got to see a measly 98.9% solar eclipse from our backyard south of the Ohio River. 1.1% may not sound like much, but in terms of eclipses, it makes all the difference both visually and scientifically.
Even a small fraction of the Sun's disk remaining uncovered, as we had in Kentucky, is enough to keep the environment relatively bright. In contrast, during the few minutes of a total eclipse, the day turns into twilight, stars can become visible, and the horizon glows in a 360-degree sunset-like effect. The temperature drops, the animals behave differently, and visually it is just an entirely different experience.
And scientifically, the path of totality is (forgive the pun) night and day different. In a total eclipse, scientists can observe the solar corona. Totality provides a unique opportunity to study the solar corona in detail. The natural conditions of a total eclipse provide unparalleled clarity for observing the corona’s structure and dynamics. It was the observance of the solar corona that allowed scientist Arthur Eddington to prove Einstein’s theory correct that the path of light is bend by massive planetary bodies. A total eclipse proved that the curvature of space-time is a real thing, not just a good science fiction story. It also allows scientists to observe things like coronal mass ejections and magnetic fields around the sun in a way that is impossible without specialized instruments that didn’t exist into only recently in modern history.
So, in the sweltering humidity of an Indian August, Pierre Janssen waited with his eyes and his instruments pointed at the heavens for the moment the sun went dark. And as the moon perfectly covered the Sun (an interesting example of the Intelligent Design of a highly-tuned universe designed by God), Pierre noticed something no one else did. While watching the sun’s chromosphere, Pierre observed a bright yellow line in the spectrum of sunlight. This spectral line did not correspond to any known elements at the time – so they gave it a new name based upon the Greek sun god, Helios. They named the new element Helium believing at the time that it only existed in space.
It is an interesting phenomenon that it takes darkness to really see the light. When everything is bright, the nuance is lost and it is hard to see where the light is coming from or what the light is made of. Darkness has a way of showing us things about ourselves that we wouldn’t know otherwise.
Consider the darkest hour in history, the crucifixion of Jesus. All the disciples scattered when the mob came with their swords and torches for Jesus, and it taught us all something about Judas that nobody believed until that black night. The gospels record that the other apostles didn’t realize he would betray Jesus, and even thought he was going to care for the poor when Jesus sent him out from their shared Passover meal with the words, “What you are going to do, do quickly.” We learned the depths of Judas’ evil only when the lights went out.
And Peter learned something about himself. He learned he wasn’t as brave or as good or as loyal as he had thought he was. Before the mob and the inky shadows of night, Peter said he would die with Jesus even if everyone else deserted Him. He believed he was prepared to stand by Jesus’ side until the bitter end. In reality, he denied Jesus three times and wept bitter tears instead. Darkness was somber and sobering for Peter. It revealed himself, to himself.
The shadows show us things about our inner selves that the daylight never can. Just like a total eclipse reveals the corona of the sun, I believe the obsidian hours of our lives may be the most important ones in revealing our souls. Peter learned this the hard way, and went on to pen the following words in his first letter:
In this you rejoice, though now for a little while, if necessary, you have been grieved by various trials, so that the tested genuineness of your faith--more precious than gold that perishes though it is tested by fire--may be found to result in praise and glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ. Though you have not seen him, you love him. Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:6-9 ESV)
Trials bring grief, but they also test the genuineness of our faith… and what is the outcome of a genuine faith? The salvation of our souls. If we want to love better with all our soul – we need to learn how to love during the eclipses.
The Bible is full of examples of people that found their souls during the eclipse. Job became a better man (which is impressive considering how good he was before) after he went through the losses of wealth, health, and family. The book of Job is the journey of a man grappling with the darkness of loss and pain only to come to peace with the idea that God would sustain him and that the Lord is sovereign.
Or what about Ruth? That woman of great faith that changed the world by simply being good in the darkness of losing her husband, leaving her homeland, and facing the adversity of poverty and starvation. We would not have the beautiful words, “Do not urge me to leave you or to return from following you. For where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge. Your people shall be my people, and your God my God.” without the darkness of her and Naomi’s losses.
Yet, the same grief that led Ruth to cling to God, pushed her sister-in-law Orpah to leave. And the devastation that revealed Job’s character, also crushed the spirit of his wife. Hard times do not always make strong souls. Sometimes they simply reveal the weaknesses.
And the weaknesses of our souls are important for us to realize. In his first letter to the churches, Peter talks about “purifying our souls” in 1 Peter 1:22, and abstaining from passions that wage war against our souls in 1 Peter 2:11, and most importantly, that Christ is offering to the Shepherd and Overseer of our souls in 1 Peter 2:25. The reason our souls need oversight is because there is a war for our souls and impurities within us and outside of us attempting to destroy our souls. Your soul is you, and you know better than anyone how fluid a thing ‘you’ can be. It is very easy to be enticed by the wrong things and find yourself on a path to self-destruction. Many people wake up one day and ask themselves, “How did I become this person?”, “What’s happened to me?”, “Who am I anyways?”.
Your soul isn’t a static thing – which means it is vulnerable to influence. Again, it is Peter that warns us against those who would “entice unsteady souls” in 2 Peter 2:14. Just because your soul is right with God today, doesn’t mean it will be tomorrow. Just because you love well now, doesn’t mean the darkness isn’t calling to you to drift toward selfishness and temptation.
Trials are the eclipses that reveal where we really are. They show us the cracks in our armor and the flaws in our character. Think of dark times as the opportunity to improve and grow. It’s like learning a sport – you improve when you lose. Playing against a stronger opponent makes us better – whether in basketball, chess, or pickleball. Failure is the road to success. Loss is the journey to improvement.
Which is what Peter did. Jesus called Peter’s denials a “sifting of wheat”. You sift wheat to remove the bad stuff and only be left with the good grain. Peter failed, but the failure didn’t have to become the end for Peter. Instead, it became a sifting of his character. The trial found the weakness.
If dark times bring out the worst in you – ask yourself, what is my worst? What has been brought out to the corona when the eclipse happens. Maybe the weakness is impatience. Or maybe it is a temper problem or cowardice. Maybe I found some ego I didn’t realize I needed to crucify or some sense of entitlement that is embarrassingly brought to light. Whatever it is, if the dark times bring it to the surface, then you can consider it a blessing that you have been able to have your character sifted.
A failed moment does not make a failed life. That’s what Jesus came for, to redeem broken things. So ask yourself when the darkness buckles you:
What have I learned about myself through this experience? Reflect on your personal strengths and weaknesses that have been revealed through hard times.
What are my coping mechanisms for hardship? Are they effective? Are they godly? Are they self-destructive?
If you failed, now what? Does the eclipse last forever, or do you let the sun shine again? Did you reach out for help? Or did you try and cope by relying on yourself? How did you express your grief, frustration, or fear? Did you push people away? Did you push God away?
James calls this sifting the “testing of your faith”. In James 1:2-4 he writes, “Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.”
It is impossible to have stronger faith without trials and those trials are, as James mentions, “of various kinds” – they may be anything from job insecurity to parenting challenges to chronic health issues. Everyone faces trials, but the dark times are the opportunity for our souls to find “steadfastness”. If you never face hard times, you will never really learn what you are made of.
Another blessing of adversity is found in the book of Ecclesiastes. Ecclesiastes 7:14 says, “In the day of prosperity be joyful, but in the day of adversity consider: Surely God has appointed the one as well as the other, so that man can find out nothing that will come after him."
Adversity provides time for consideration of our place. When we prosper, we tend to put ourselves on an undeserved pedestal… when we get knocked off that pedestal, we have to figure out where we really belong.
Dark times give us the opportunity to ask the question, “What does this loss teach me about where I belong?” Challenges and setbacks are an amazing opportunity to remind you that you aren’t God.
On August 18, Pierre Janssen saw something in the darkness that no one else noticed. He saw helium, and in an interesting twist, he turned the darkness into a blessing. Can you imagine a world that didn’t know about helium? Balloons would just be sad.
Let the darkness teach you. When life gets eclipsed by trials, suffering, setbacks, or grief – there is opportunity in the blackness. Even when you’ve failed, it can be a chance to sift the best out of you if you will let it. After all, do you know what we call it when God uses the dark times to make something beautiful? We call it grace.
And eclipses provide another visual reminder of that – do you know what happens right after the darkest moment of an eclipse? It’s called the diamond ring effect. As the moon slides past the Sun, a single point of bright sunlight becomes visible at the edge of the Moon’s silhouette. This single bright spot shines so brilliantly that it resembles a diamond, and the surrounding light from the Sun’s corona, which appears just at the moon uncovers the sun, forms a halo around the moon creating a ring. The contrast between the bright diamond and the dim ring gives it the appearance of a diamond set in a ring.
I know it may sound corny, but it’s a good reminder that the most beautiful things often appear in the darkest moments. Don’t give up – your eclipse might just be bringing the diamond out of you.
Learn to love better. Learn to love through the eclipse.
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And until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”
