Illumination…

As I languish on the back patio soaking in the warmth of the sun, I can’t help but think about how good light is. It is the light that sustains us. It gives us life. Best of all, light helps us see where we are going. Walking on the cliff isn’t scary unless it’s nighttime. Where folks go wrong the most is in not being aware of their need for the light. There are far too many pitfalls, ditches, bad actors and bad spirits to be able to navigate without the light. In the dark we stumble around. We waste our lives in things that don’t matter, for causes that are not ours to fight, for the whim of other men and their profitable desires of us. We do not know this of course because of the darkness. Here’s a thought. I am willing to bet you that every difficulty that has consistently challenged you and knocked you off center is due to some error of thought hiding in the darkness; your darkness. Guaranteed. When we unknowingly live our lives a certain way or think a certain way or default to a well practiced way, we end up, in our ignorance, having our vision obscured. Error or sin, if that doesn’t freak you out, leads to more and more obscurity. You practice error and your light is dimmed. You continue to practice error, now you are able to discern less and less. And, before you get all righteous and holy on me, all of us have sinned and came short of the glory of God, including myself. Savior came, problem solved. As such, if I haven’t lost you, I’m pointing out how that error is the darkness of our lives. And in order to get rid of the darkness you are going to need some illumination.

We all have some problems. We are all secretly weird (smile). We all came from the factory with the propensity for error. Some folks were raised well and some had it real fucked up. All we had to learn from was our parents who learned from their parents and repeat. What I’m really saying is that you do not have to apologize for your humanity. We all have dark spots, we all have error, we all have fear and on. All of us. We struggle because of what we do not know because of what we cannot see. The illumination that helps us see is not the sun, though He made the sun. The illumination is God. God is light and in Him is no darkness at all. Yeah. No darkness at all! His light helps us to see spiritually and spiritually involves the spirits. No not ghosts or creepy shape shifters. Instead concepts of error, promotion of error, masters of error. God said my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge. It’s the not knowing that gets you. However, a whole lot of darkness is dispelled with a little light. Your life may be going reasonably well and definitely not bad. But, sometimes there is more. This life is only the tip of the iceberg. You don’t know what you don’t know and you can’t see what you can’t see. But, don’t think because you can’t see it, it does not exist. You see it in the effects produced in your life. You see it in your fruit or lack thereof. Inside you know. There has to be more to this thing than just this. There is more! There is a happiness and joy and peace you may not have ever experienced, or at least not yet. There’s a freedom found in escaping from bondage, the mental prisons, the awful shit we do and say to ourselves inside. Real freedom to choose and believe and thrive. Real life, not some imitation. Live life illuminated.

In order for God to illuminate us, He gave us His Word. He gave us the truth that sets us free. Our lives become illuminated in the proportion that we know and believe the truth. In our illumination the light reveals things to us. No, not the ghosts and shape shifters! (smile) The light in our minds shines in those old dusty areas we have been packing junk around for years and years. We begin to see how we really think and are sometimes aghast at the idea. We start to notice the annoying little shots we take at ourselves. We hear the accusation, the endless accusation, but not longer feel compelled to respond to it. The light showed us it wasn’t God. Exactly who were we answering? Oh we won’t transform overnight maybe, but being able to see what you could never see before is breathtaking. Starting to recognize that you can trust God and that you never had to do all that damnable striving and exhausting attempts at self-sufficiency. Solving real problems in your real life, right now. Digging up that guy you buried out of fear long ago. If you want to know, God will help you know. He is the one that shines the light on your path. God is light.

An illuminated life is not perfect. We will still have the contend with The Darkness. But, it doesn’t take much light to chase off a whole lot of darkness. I’m shining the light for you. Do you like it?

Just some good thoughts…