living in the light

"...And this is the verdict,

that the light came into the world,

but people preferred darkness to light,

because their works were evil.

For everyone who does wicked things hates the light

and does not come toward the light,

so that his works might not be exposed.

But whoever lives the truth comes to the light,

so that his works may be clearly seen as done in God."

(Jn 3:19-21)

The things we hide, the things we keep out of the light. We all have them. The things we don't want to face about ourselves - the things we think, the things we do. The things we don't want anyone else to know about.


The trouble is, we don't live in a vacuum. The things we don't want to face about ourselves... they affect us. And because they affect us, they affect other people. They affect our relationships. We live in a state of illusion, or denial, or whatever you want to call it - sometimes we are happy to stay in the darkness. 


Of course, on the flip side of that, the things those around us don't want to face about themselves affect us, too. People hurt us through their words, through their actions. 


We've all done "wicked things," we've all lived in the dark. 


Yet we were meant to live in truth, to live in the light - and hopefully we're all striving to do just that - so our "works may be clearly seen as done in God."


Still, we all fail. And when we do, it's easy to become discouraged, and fall prey to the devil's temptations to crawl back off into the darkness. It's easy to fall victim to the lie that says we'll never get it right, and it's not worth trying - because we are unworthy of our God, anyway. Right? 


If there's anything Easter should remind us of, it's that although we are indeed unworthy of our God - we were indeed worth the sacrifice our God made to offer us salvation. Unworthy - but worth it. Worth the pain, worth the blood, worth the nails, and desolation of the cross. 


We need to remember this, and let it be the catalyst that keeps us coming back to the light when we fail, and are tempted to return to the darkness. 


St. Teresa of Avila put it well (Mike, if you read this, thanks for posting this quote on Facebook today - I needed to read it!):


"The devil will try to upset you by accusing you of being unworthy of the blessings that you have received. Simply remain cheerful and do your best to ignore the devil's nagging. If need be even laugh at the absurdity of the situation. Satan, the epitome of sin itself, accuses you of unworthiness! 
When the devil reminds you of your past, remind him of his future!"


+Peace, and all good, friends! 


As an aside - this blog hit 1000 pageviews today! Not too bad, particularly considering it's been a mere two months since this journey began. To all of you out there who read this, thank you. I am humbled and blessed to share these things with you.