The first thing most of us do when we get up in the mornings is turn on a light. Nobody wants to eat the coffee table because they tripped as they walked into a dark room. Whether it’s a lamp or an overhead light, we start our day by turning on the lights.
We intuitively don’t like the dark. You’ve never heard a kid scream, “Mom, I’m afraid of the light!”
Because light is essential, our eyes are designed to recognize even the smallest glimmer. Scientists have concluded that if our sight line was unobstructed and we were in the dark, a human eye could detect the flicker of a candle up to 30 MILES away. Our eyes are designed to find light to gather information about the world around us. We look for light as a mechanism for survival.
Much like our eyes are designed to search for light, our heart is designed to search for God. We often hear that we don’t search for God, God searches for us. Certainly that is theologically correct. But as Pascal has expressed (not exactly, but implied,) there is a God shaped vacuum in our heart. Our hearts aredesigned to look for God.
This can explain why we chase any glimmer we see, i.e. a great career, a hot girl, a fast car, an irresistible body or an addiction.
Jesus resurrection reveals that light has entered the world, and the search of our heart can be realized. Jesus was in the deepest darkness for 3 days, but the light of his life could not be conquered. To walk in the light of Jesus means to see life as it was meant to be lived. No substitutes or temporary pleasure. Life as it was meant to be lived.
As we see from a place in the Bible, Luke 24, two friends of Jesus see him after his resurrection, and initially do not recognize Him! They kept themselves in the dark because they had wrong expectations of Jesus. They had no framework for the resurrection and didn’t even recognize Jesus walking right beside them.
We can be right there with them – either trapped in deep darkness with sinful patterns, or simply trapped in a messed up view of who God is. The promise of this darkness is destruction. Yeah, promise. Not a promise most of us would want to see kept. But the promise of the resurrection is that we don’t have to live that way.
Another place in the Bible, Revelation 3:20 says this:
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me.”
Jesus is standing at the door of our lives (or hearts) waiting for us to open the door to him. Notice He does not give the promise of power (He had no earthly throne), prosperity (He was homeless), or popularity (they executed Him!). He came with the promise of being with us and giving us life as it was meant to be lived.
A friend of mine found himself off the coast of New Zealand swimming when the sun went down quicker than expected. He was over his head, in cold water, and didn’t know which way towards the beach! Finally, after searching desperately for the beach, he saw a small light glimmering from a house on the shore. He had found what his eye (and life) desperately needed.
When we realize that Jesus came to be with us in every moment, our hearts find what they are desperately searching for. With this, we find life was it was meant to be lived.
How do I live in the light?
What’s going on in your brain needs to be told to somebody else. You have some secrets, big and small, that are in the dark. If not brought into the light, they will continue to grow in the dark like kudzu and destroy you. Strangle you. Embarrass you. Overwhelm you. You can stop this. If there is anything in your life that you think, “that’s no big deal,” it’s a big deal. If there is anything you think would embarrass you if somebody knew, tell someone while you can still control it. Get ahead of it. Why let it turn into cancer when it is now just a small infection?
Find out how life was meant to be lived. Live in the light.
