Stumbling Through the Dark

Emerald is now sleeping with her closet light on. She has graduated to this point through lots of baby steps. First, she just wanted the bathroom light in the hall left on. Then she wanted to take a flashlight to bed, too.  Then she decided she needed her closet light on with the door slightly ajar. And now she’s at the point where her closet doors are standing wide open and it is fairly daylight in her room all night long.

I asked her why she needed so much light, and she said that things in her room look scary in the dark. So, one night I went in there and looked around. She was right. Her ceiling fan suddenly looked like a giant spider. The friendly little tissue paper poofs hanging from her ceiling look like strange ghostly orbs. Even her cute flowered dresser looks large and foreboding in the darkness. But, with the closet lights on, she can look all around her tiny room and see that it really is the same cozy, friendly place that she has always enjoyed hanging out.

I crowded out the darkness in Emerald’s room with a good old-fashioned dose of bright light. And, thankfully she falls right to sleep without wondering what is waiting for her in the dark. What was once so terrifying is no big deal now that she can clearly see what she is dealing with.

Tonight, millions of men and women who subscribed to the affair-seeking site Ashley Madison have been shoved out of the dark into a blinding, white light. And, this is a good thing.

Because sin thrives in the dark. It breeds and multiplies. In the dark, sin feels undefeatable. It feels invincible. In the dark, sin will take over and rule you.

Maybe you are sitting miserable in the dark of a secret sin right now. Don’t wait until you are shoved into the bright light of truth. Step out. Walk into the arms of the Savior in whom there is not even a hint of shadow. In His light, we see sin for what it is, and it is rarely as monstrously overwhelming as we think. In fact, in the light of His love and mercy and power, even the biggest sins don’t look undefeatable anymore.

He isn’t afraid of your sin. Take it to Him. Turn on the light. You don’t have to be enslaved by the dark anymore.