The Darkness Is Only Dark Without A Light

Nov 1

A little confession moment, i wrote this back in the beginning of October but this week its been the topic of discussion and become that much more real to me, so I guess I will finally share with you all.

This week has been a really hard one and the darkness is so much more evident, but we are also gearing up for the christmas season and the theme of the christmas program at GES is hope and the thai church theme is Light! How fitting!

Its true, darkness is the absence of light and it can only be dark when there is no light, because even the faintest light breaks through the darkness.

This is something I have been thinking about lately. There is a lot of literal darkness here in Thailand, the kind of darkness that weighs heavy on you, the kind of darkness that feels like its going to steal your light from you. The kind of darkness that can harden your heart and make you believe the lie that its hopeless.

The bible says that gods of this world have blinded the hearts of those that do not believe and its suffocating them in the darkness.

"In their case the god of this world has blinded the minds of the unbelievers, to keep them from seeing the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God. 5 For what we proclaim is not ourselves, but Jesus Christ as Lord, with ourselves as your servants for Jesus' sake. 6 For God, who said, “Let light shine out of darkness,” has shone in our hearts to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ. (2 Corinthians 4:4-6)

Jesus also says "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life" (John 8:12)

But what is even cooler is that christians are the light of the world. Its our job to be the light of Jesus to those in our own lives.

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven" (Matthew 5:14-16)

I have a cool story about when all this hit me like a ton of bricks...for the first time here...

It happened at overnight camp, over and over. I was hanging out with a group of girls at dinner and they were all telling how long they had been going to school at GES. One said nursery, one Kindergarten, some first grade and some that were fairly newer. These girls were in high school so the fact that they have been here since they were like 4 or 5 was crazy for me to think about.

Then I saw it. Then it hit me, many of these kids have literally heard the stories of Jesus since they were wee little ones, yet they still did not believe. They were still lost. They were still in darkness and captivity. It broke my heart. I wanted them to know Him!

Then bed time comes around the first night and a cabin of girls was so afraid of going to sleep because they believed their cabin was haunted that I had to go stay with them. It was already after mid-night when I had to pack up my stuff to move cabins so I was kind of grumpy. As i packed up my bags, I was so frustrated, these were older girls, they should not be afraid of ghosts...then it hit me again. It made perfect sense...of course these girls were afraid, they didn't have the light of Jesus. They were unable to close their eyes because their whole lives they have been living in this darkness and had probably witnessed some scary things, they had every right to be afraid. They are without hope.

When I realized this my perspective changed and it was actually a beautiful night. I wish I could tell you that they all got saved that night, but I can't. I did however get to tell them about the power of the name of Jesus and how darkness is not overcome by the light. That what I had was different because my God is all powerful and at his name the demons shutter and I can close my eyes at night and not be afraid of the darkness that surrounds. We prayed. They went to bed. and that was it. But I am choosing to believe that maybe, just maybe the next time they are scared that the light of the gospel can shine again as they remember the peace they felt that night.

The darkness is overcome by the light when we actually let it shine. Jesus already paid the price, he already beat sin and death and that is good news! We get to live now in freedom and with hope, with purpose!