As I get ready to go to bed each night, it is my job to go around the house and make sure the doors are locked and the lights get turned off. Every once in awhile I will turn off the lights and then remember I forgot to check if the doors will lock. Majority of the time I won’t turn the lights back on and I will simply walk in the dark to check the doors. Most of the time, that works out great, but then there is that moment when my foot goes down and a millisecond later pain rips through my foot as I step on some misplaced toy. My apathy or laziness of not turning the lights on just cost me a couple hours of sleep and a couple days of limping around being reminded of what walking in darkness could cost.
In our current culture, we live in the tension between living in the light and the dark. Many times, in our Christian life, we initially are on fire for what God is doing in our lives and we make decisions easily. Over time we gradually start to make decisions that we believe that we can navigate because we “know” better. We get more confident as time passes because our decisions don’t produce any bad consequences. We find our mindset changing from doing the right thing (what God would have us do) to what can I get away with. We go from the humility of knowing that we need to stay close to God to live life to the fullest, to pride believing that we can do whatever we want because we know better. Over and over again, without regard to gender, age, race, or occupation we slide into walking in the darkness. The longer we walk in darkness the more confident we become and never see the pain of the hidden “object” we are about to step on. The cost of walking in the darkness is never thought about or understood until the moment we step onto the hidden object. The cost is always bigger than anybody expects and it always affects more people than we realize.
I have learned in my own life and by being involved in other people’s lives, that most people don’t purposely walk in the dark, but from complacency and pride they put themselves in increasing “gray” places. I encourage us to stay focused on walking in the light, close to God. Reject the pride that says you can handle walking in the dark without God. Shift from trying to do the right thing to focusing on bringing God, light, into your life. No one is strong enough to do life without daily inviting light into their life. On the other hand no one has been cut off from walking in the light. No one has done too much or can not obtain light. God doesn’t take light away, we choose to walk away from the light. Go for walking in the light. It is worth it. Don’t give up.
Ephesians 5:8, “For once you were full of darkness, but now you have light from the Lord. So live as people of light!”