“We can easily forgive a child who
is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when adults are afraid of
the light.”
— Plato
“And this is the judgment, that the
light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light
because their deeds were evil.”
— John 3:19 (NRSV)
It wasn’t just in my childhood
that I was afraid of the dark. Many times, while staying in Hotel rooms by
myself as I travelled around for work, I would leave the bathroom light on. I
could say a big part of the reason was needing to be able to find my way around
the room in the middle of the night. But there was always something more to it;
I felt vulnerable in a strange place by myself.
From a spiritual context, I am
also drawn to the Light. Indeed, as for the many, there is no natural inkling
toward darkness, but then I suspect there is always darkness within me to
contend with. I need light.
Within metaphors of light and
darkness, we come to a poignant crossroad: light reveals darkness and
light flushes out darkness—if we invite light in and allow light to do its work. We must allow light into our lives such that
darkness of the heart would be expunged.
Inviting the Light into Our Lives
These are qualities of character.
If we are to invite the light into our lives, in dealing with our darkness, a
state of being we all have, we must connect light with truth. Light can only
come into our lives when truth, however painful, becomes our value and gauge for life.
Hardly anything is more important
than a personally exacting truth.
This is not about exacting the
truths of others’ lives—finding cause for judgment or criticism of others—no,
this is about our lives, and how we obey and disobey God as the direct result
of how we deal with our circumstances. When truth becomes important we must
deal with our responses. When truth becomes number one, truth begins to shape
our responses.
Our method for dealing with our
darkness is repentance in turning toward the light. As we connect this process
of turning toward the light with turning toward the truth, we finally
acknowledge God. God is love, and we may know that, but God is just as much
truth.
Let us turn to the light to see
what truth it reveals. The more light we let in, the more truth we will need to
deal with, but the more we’ll be blessed in pleasing God.
***
People may be afraid of the Light
for what it reveals. The Light of God is truth for life, but where the truth
cannot be acknowledged and attended to people remain in darkness. God cannot help
from there.
As we relate with our personal
selves in connection with God, the vertical relationship, aligning with truth
is never more important.
© 2012 S. J. Wickham.
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