Living in the Light
The weather has been cooler today and now we are getting some rain. I’m glad I had the lawn aerated yesterday and that it has been fertilized. Some of the spots that were slow to green up are now making progress.
I went on another wheelchair jaunt around my neighborhood. I logged a little over 1.5 miles in just under 45 minutes. I ran into some challenging uphill grades but not like last week. I have been working on some of the new exercises from my outpatient therapy work. You can pray that there will be effective in addressing some of my deficiencies and helping with my overall strength. I am being creative in my shoulder presses. (see picture)
Tomorrow we travel to Gunnison for my niece’s college graduation. Her last final is tomorrow morning the day before graduation, working up to the last minute. I’m not sure what happened to a lighter schedule for seniors? I didn’t ask her what would happen if she failed the final. But I don’t it will be a problem, sounds like she will graduate with honors.
BIBLE VERSE FOR TODAY… “O Lord, you are my lamp. The Lord turns my darkness into light.” 2 Samuel 2:29
A recent issue of TIME magazine arrested my attention when the front cover had the title, “Finding God in the Dark” The subtitle contains the words that the preacher/author says, “strength, purpose and true faith are found in the shadows.”
With my journey through a major medical setback and a long road to recovery the words, “strength, purpose and true faith” got my attention. There is certainly no “dark” time like facing a life threatening illness or diagnosis. Through these challenges one discovers the foundation of their strength, purpose and faith. For others, threse qualities emerge from the setback or illness.
As I turned to the pages of the article, I found that the author was encouraging spiritual discovery by “embracing darkness.” She suggests going out for walks at night, sitting in a dark room or closet. Not what I was expecting. I began to reflect on one of those cave tours when they turn out the lights and you experience total darkness. The darkness where you can’t see your face in front of your hand! I didn’t feel close to God in those moments and was glad that darkness was only for less than a minute. However, it is that kind of darkness that does give you an appreciation for the light.
I am thankful that, “the Lord turns darkness into light.” The Bible does talk about darkness both metaphorically and in describing the actual time of day. I’m not sure that Jesus being born at night and the description of a “dark cloud” over Sinai when Moses received the ten commandments and dreams coming to people at night is an endorsement of embracing darkness as a way to get closer to God.
Darkness is used more often to describe the condition of the human heart without God. We also see blindness being one of the most used metaphors of a physical condition with a spiritual application.
So I am thankful today, on kind of a dark day, that…
…“God is light in Him there is no darkness at all.”(1 John 1:5)
…Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will have a life filled with light and will never live in the dark.” (John 8:12)
…“Once you lived in the dark, but now the Lord has filled you with light. Live as children who have light.”  (Eph. 5:8)
Our lives in many ways can gravitate to darkness, I think I would rather choose to live in the light and to have God reveal Himself as the one who removes the darkness from my life and helps to triumph over every obstacle of life. I believe strength, purpose and true faith are found in God revelation of Himself through His Son, the Light of the World.