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.
Anyone who’s ever had a teenager, or anyone who’s ever been a teenager knows this is true. At times, people love the darkness rather than the light because their deeds are evil. In my teenage years, I was a pretty good kid, and there were times when I preferred my actions were kept in the dark. I knew they were not right actions, and I did not want them to come to light. These were not egregious actions, but I know that sense of wanting something to be kept in the dark.
Earlier in John’s gospel we read that darkness cannot overcome the light. I’d argue it cannot because darkness isn’t the presence of something, but rather the absence of something – the absence of light. Any light at all removes the darkness.
So what of this saying, that people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil? And what of the notion that God’s light is in all of us, however dim it might be? Maybe when people do evil deeds, they shield those actions from light, they create a shadow where the light cannot shine, throwing their actions into darkness.
Here's what I find interesting. If this is the case, you’d need to actively shield your actions from the light. It takes effort to do that. It’s in that action that we make our judgment. We actively choose to walk away from the light, or to hide our actions from the light, throwing them in darkness. We do this because we cannot bear the light on these actions we know are not good. We walk away. We actively shield. This morning, I’m thinking about how I might let God’s eternal light shine on all of me and all of the world. It’s already there, but we need to stop shielding it, or putting it under a bushel. It’s a more passive action for sure, to just let the light shine.
No comments:
Post a Comment