Reach for the Light

I did the oddest thing the other day leaving my house to get my girls from school. We have a little laundry room that leads out to our garage. In my hurried state, I closed the door from the living room to the laundry room on one end before opening the door that leads to the garage on the other end or at the very least turning on the light. So, I found myself standing in pitch-black darkness. My reaction was to close my eyes. Only a few steps from the light switch, I stood there with eyes closed a slight feeling of panic creeping into my gut.

Then, I laughed at myself. Out loud, for real. What an odd thing to do.

"I am the light of the world; he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness..." ~John 8:12

 

En route to the school still amused by my reaction, it occurred to me that though I closed my eyes I was still very much in darkness. Eureka! Talk about a light bulb moment! You see, I stood there in my circumstance not wanting to see that I was alone in the dark, so I closed my eyes. My own hurried action of closing the door thrust me into utter darkness. I had been distracted and in such a rush to get to where I was going, that I was engulfed by darkness before I knew it. For that moment I could not see. I was blind and disoriented. All I had to do was reach for the light that was at my fingertips.

Isn't that how we are when we are doing things we know aren't right? Maybe we are not necessarily doing wrong, but we know we are not walking in a way that is pleasing to our Father or we are not walking in His will. When our spirit man is dying, the light in us is being snuffed out. Jesus said in Matthew 5:14 that we are "the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden." How can we be the light if we blend in with the darkness? Sometimes we choose to stay blind to things in our hearts that maybe we are not ready to deal with because they are too painful. Perhaps we are not ready for God to shine the light on some areas because we do not want things to change. We ourselves do not want to change. Regardless of our motives or justifications, if we aren't in the light we are in darkness.

Lord, help me to always keep everything in the light and to never be satisfied with keeping things hidden from you as you see it all anyway. Give me the courage to face the hidden things, turn my back to the darkness, and reach for the Light.

"For though I fall, I will rise again. Though I sit in darkness, the Lord will be my light." 

~Micah 7:8