Loving the darkness
Day 674, Tuesday, June 16
Chapter 2 – 3:36
One of the things that surprised me working as a reporter was how eager people are to share their stories. Where I was often concerned that people would resist speaking to someone who would make their comments public, most were actually eager to get their version of the truth told—with two big exceptions.
While people who believed they were in the right wanted to tell that to everyone they met, those who believed they had done something wrong wanted to keep silent.
The other group that wanted to keep quiet was the people who thought their power or position was threatened. The politician or coach who was confident of winning didn’t answer the phone—the underdog did. Anyone who felt powerless wanted to share their take on the truth.
John makes this point using one of his favorite images: light. Jesus is the light that reveals truth and lies, right and wrong, weakness and power.
In 3:18-21 he writes, “Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God’s one and only son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that their deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what they have done has been done in the sight of God.”
We know that we can’t hide the truth from God, yet we still try to.
Being part of a Christian community can help us open ourselves to God’s light by opening ourselves to one another. In James 5:16 we were told, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
Light brings life and light brings cleansing. Open yourself to it.
Tuesday meditation
Psalms 144:1-8
Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, my fingers for battle. He is my loving God and my fortress, my stronghold and my deliverer, my shield, in whom I take refuge, who subdues peoples under me.
Lord, what are human beings that you care for them, mere mortals that you think of them? They are like a breath; their days are like a fleeting shadow.
Part your heavens, Lord, and come down; touch the mountains, so that they smoke. Send forth lightning and scatter the enemy; shoot your arrows and rout them. Reach down your hand from on high; deliver me and rescue me from the mighty waters, from the hands of foreigners whose mouths are full of lies, whose right hands are deceitful.
Prayer focus
Search me, God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts.
-Rev. Mark Fleming