Darkness is not the Issue
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Ever try to remove darkness? Take a piece of darkness and remove it, displace it, move it's location. What is left behind? Does darkness leave behind an absence, a by-product? Does it leave behind more darkness?
Perhaps some of us know better: darkness is simply the absence of light.
How can we remove an absence? If there is nothing, how can we move it? We should probably ask more accurately, "How can we move not it" since that's what darkness is: it isn't.
If it is an absence, can we run away from it? Towards a source of life, sure. But if not towards light, then to another absence? The same absence? Is there a difference between one absence and another, or are they all the same; are they all the same not. I believe it to be so--How can we classify, how can we name something that isn't--it can't have a name if it doesn't exist.
Is the presence of darkness--which is actually quite an impossibility--simply a symptom, an indicator of a grander situation, of an absence of something that is normally there? Then, if it is an indication, is the presence of light normal, and the absence thereof abnormal?
It's odd that we would rather focus on the sympton, we would focus on the absence rather than the presence. We would rather move ourselves to another darkness than to move ourselves to the light. We would rather try to give up our darknesses instead of inviting the light.
I heard a pastor say, "This week, I challenge you to pray about one thing, one thing that is causing you trouble in coming to relationship with your Lord". Complete crock, it is. How can we give up that which does not physically exist? This trouble that keeps us away from Christ, away from the light, this darkness which blinds us to the mercy and grandeur of our Saviour, how can we give it up?
Perhaps God often has this perspective: that sin, evil, these kinds of things are simply the absence of Himeslf, and if he was only invited everywhere that these things would simply not exist. It must be a matter of nature for Him--and by principle should be for us too.
See, the only way to treat darkness is to invite the light. Not treating the darkness... There is nothing in the way of me and my Lord except my will to go there, to the Light. Don't ask me to do the impossible, I can't remove this darkness--I can't delete it, I can't replace it, I can't do anything to this absence of light. I can only move closer to the Light.
Perhaps some of us know better: darkness is simply the absence of light.
How can we remove an absence? If there is nothing, how can we move it? We should probably ask more accurately, "How can we move not it" since that's what darkness is: it isn't.
If it is an absence, can we run away from it? Towards a source of life, sure. But if not towards light, then to another absence? The same absence? Is there a difference between one absence and another, or are they all the same; are they all the same not. I believe it to be so--How can we classify, how can we name something that isn't--it can't have a name if it doesn't exist.
Is the presence of darkness--which is actually quite an impossibility--simply a symptom, an indicator of a grander situation, of an absence of something that is normally there? Then, if it is an indication, is the presence of light normal, and the absence thereof abnormal?
It's odd that we would rather focus on the sympton, we would focus on the absence rather than the presence. We would rather move ourselves to another darkness than to move ourselves to the light. We would rather try to give up our darknesses instead of inviting the light.
I heard a pastor say, "This week, I challenge you to pray about one thing, one thing that is causing you trouble in coming to relationship with your Lord". Complete crock, it is. How can we give up that which does not physically exist? This trouble that keeps us away from Christ, away from the light, this darkness which blinds us to the mercy and grandeur of our Saviour, how can we give it up?
Perhaps God often has this perspective: that sin, evil, these kinds of things are simply the absence of Himeslf, and if he was only invited everywhere that these things would simply not exist. It must be a matter of nature for Him--and by principle should be for us too.
See, the only way to treat darkness is to invite the light. Not treating the darkness... There is nothing in the way of me and my Lord except my will to go there, to the Light. Don't ask me to do the impossible, I can't remove this darkness--I can't delete it, I can't replace it, I can't do anything to this absence of light. I can only move closer to the Light.