No Longer Stumbling in Darkness
by Meghan Kleppinger, Crosswalk.com Contributor
For you were formerly darkness, but now you are Light in the Lord; walk as children of Light.
Ephesians 5:8
The electricity went out for less than five minutes last week, but the brief outage, caused by severe winds, was very frightening. Thankfully, in less than five minutes, before I could even make my way to the cabinet with the stowed flashlight, it came back on.
Oh, the things that go through a girl's mind when it's pitch black and she is all alone!
I'm sure you know what I mean. Whether electric outages scare you or not, one thing is for sure, we all go into survival mode. For me, I start running down an invisible checklist: find dog, find flashlight, find cell phone, look down the street to see if it's just me, check alarm system, light candles, etc.
Of course, the entire time I'm going working through this process, my heart is sitting in my stomach, and I'm hunched over with arms held out in front of me to block any potential harm-causing items. I'm clumsy in broad daylight, so you can imagine the bruises that pop up after a power outage!
When the lights came back on the other night everything changed. Immediately I abandoned the survival mode I was operating in, straightened up, and released a sigh of relief. Why? Because, I could see!
The power outage and the contrasting emotions that I experienced reminded me of Ephesians 5:8.
Life without Christ is a lot like what I experienced during the power outage - survival mode in pitch darkness. Without Christ, there are no absolutes. Hope, truth, and even morality, is relative. Whether we admit it or not, when Christ is not the foundation, one's existence is simply a life spent stumbling around in the dark hoping not to bump into anything. How many times do we hear friends say, "Well, I guess I'll just wait and see and find out in the end whether I was good enough."
Thankfully, there is an alternative to a life of uncertainty an darkness.
Of course, I'm referring to a life with Christ, who offers assurance and a grace that sheds light in the darkness. When we become Christ followers, truth becomes absolute, and we don't have to wonder whether or not we're "good enough." It's not hit or miss.
This power outage reminded me that being a Christian doesn't mean that life will suddenly become easy, mistakes won't be made, or that periods of darkness won't be encountered; however, when times do get tough, I'm reminded that I no longer need to crouch over into self preservation survival mode… all I need to do is reach for the Light.
Intersecting Faith & Life: "It is not darkness you are going to, for God is Light. It is not lonely, for Christ is with you. It is not unknown country, for Christ is there" (English novelist, Charles Kingsley).
Further Reading:
Ephesians 5:8 calls us to walk as children of light. I encourage you to study the rest of Ephesians 5, because it tells us exactly how to do it.
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