It seems as if I have two parallel themes running in my life right now. For 15 days straight I’ve been blogging about HOPE. At the same time, God has been showing me a lot about LIGHT. I call them parallel themes, because hope and light seem to have a lot in common. Often we describe times of hopelessness as “dark” moments in our lives. So here are some thoughts about LIGHT which, I pray, bring hope as well.
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LIGHT.
I LOVE LIGHT. It may sound a little weird, but it’s true. I dread winter each year with short, dark, dreary, days all bundled up inside. The first thing I like to do each morning is turn on all the lamps or lights possible in whatever room I’m in. If it’s ever a sunny day, the blinds get opened to let as much light in as possible.
I LOVE LIGHT.
…well … most of the time.
There are some things though that, at first glance at least, I think I’d rather leave tucked away in the dark closet that never gets opened. I think we all have those things… the ones that are just fine staying in the deep dark shadows, because it seems easier to deal with that way, right? Things like fear… like shame… like guilt and sin and failure. Those can just stay hidden or at least in a dim room where you can’t REALLY tell what they are…. just that something’s there.
But in reality. As much as we REALLY want to just keep those things in the dark, at the same time, our hearts also deeply desire the freedom found when those things of the darkness are brought into the light.
Ann Voskamp put it this way in a blog post:
I know the terror of telling the truth… I am far more scared of secrets. Because its keeping secrets that keeps us from being real. From fully being alive.
It is true: I am terrified to be real. But I am far more terrified to be false. Which would mean I cease to be.
It can be painful at times for the things of the deep dark places of our hearts to be brought into the light… but only then can we find healing and hope.
God doesn’t desire us to live in darkness. Instead he says:
You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to go, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light. (1 Peter 2:9)
And in Isaiah 42:16 he says:
I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them, I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.
I find it interesting that the first part of this passage talks about unknown ways and unfamiliar paths. The process of letting God shine light into the dark places is often uncertain… which is what makes it scary. But I love how it then says… he will turn darkness into light, making the rough places smooth and through it all… OUR GOD WILL NOT FORSAKE US! It may not be an easy process, and probably will involve some pain, but God never leaves.
I’ll close these random thoughts about light with two quotes that Ann Voskamp had in another one of her posts.
“Never fear shadows.
They simply mean there’s a light shining somewhere nearby.”
~Ruth E. Renkel
“The Lord is my light and my salvation—
so why should I be afraid?”
~Ps. 27:1
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