I sat silently in a pitch black room. The immense storm that just passed left the sky dark. I waited for my eyes to adjust, but I realized that there’s a point where your eyes don’t adjust anymore and I was there. It would be very easy to get disoriented, but I sat quietly waiting. My eyes began shifting wildly, playing tricks on me. I could see tiny flashes of light fading in and out through a window across from me. Firefly’s that I had never noticed before seemed brighter than I had ever seen. A flash of lightning would flicker across the sky. The light seemed to radiate through the room and enhance everything. My eyes locked onto the glimmer, taking in as much of the surroundings as I could for the brief moment. But the darkness enveloped the room again making it seem even more ominous than before. I sank back into my hiding place waiting, contemplating the effects of the darkness.
When we sit in the darkness long enough, we begin to adjust to that darkness. Most of the time it is a slow fade into that darkness. I tend to read in the dark a lot. I start off with enough light to see the page clearly, but then as the sun fades my eyes adjust until the words are no longer decipherable.
At night when I am ready to go to bed, I turn out all the lights and make my way to my room in the dark. Only a few points of light from clocks or electrical devices are on, but in the dim glow I can make it easily by memory.
As I sit and type this blog I sit in a darkened room. When I look at the lighted screen everything seems deeply black around me. When I focus on the dark my eyes adjust and I can see points where the light touches giving me some bearing, but it still is really dark. But then it hit me that if I turned the computer around in the dark room it would illuminate everything.
It’s really hard not to adjust to the darkness around you. Your thinking is slowly numbed into believing cultural truths. Many times we do not even realize that we have adjusted. Have you succumb to the world around you? Do you fear the unknown? Do you worry unnecessarily? Do you complain when things don’t go the way you planned or the situation isn’t as picture perfect as would have liked? Is your security in your job or the things you have? Do you hold back the extras that God has given you just in case you will need them in the future? These are just a few of the many ways we have stopped trusting God and blurred the lines of worldly living and living as a child of God!
1 John 1:5-10
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.
If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. If we claim we have not sinned, we make him out to be a liar and his word has no place in our lives.
Live as a child of the light! Do not fear, God is in control! It is not enough to know that he is in control, you have to let him take control of your life! Speak words of truth, your words bring life and they bring death. Rejoice in the Lord always! Your security is not in what you can provide for yourself, it is in what God provides for you! He will give you everything you need, it’s a promise! If you have a great job and can provide for yourself and your family, praise God for it and bless others with it! Live your life as a blessing to others!
