Thursday, March 10, 2016

Moving out of the darkness

I've been a part of a handful of conversations lately with friends who are either fighting an ongoing sin issue themselves or have spouses or other loved ones who are. These are not rare or unusual conversations because we all struggle with sin. But the unique thing about several of these recent conversations is that these friends have kept quiet about the sin. They haven't told anyone. They've kept it in the dark, at least until now.

That got me thinking about the power of the darkness and how much the enemy of our souls wants us to keep things there. If we allow our sin to linger in the darkness, to hide there, then we give him control. And that's exactly what he wants.

I got to share some thoughts yesterday with my bi-weekly MOPS group (which I love!) and I read a snippet from Jen Hatmaker's book 'For the Love' that says SO much about the power of bringing something from darkness into the light.

"Simply speaking truth out loud is healing in and of itself. When people courageously voice a true, hard thing, they've already stolen back some of its dark power before we offer one word to fix it.

"Pulling something difficult from its dark hiding place and into the light is innately healing.

(For the Love, Chapter 7, Page 47) 

I love those words. 

You don't even need to have a firm grasp on a solution to the problem before you're able see a glimmer of hope. The first step to healing is simply bringing the truth into the light. 

The hard things in this life were never meant to be fought by ourselves, in the dark. There's a very slim chance of victory when that's our approach. When the true things of our hearts, how ever ugly they may be, are brought into the light the destructive power that "thing" has over us is weakened and it gives the people who love us a chance to walk the journey towards healing with us hand in hand. That way it was intended to be. 

In him was life, and the life was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it. 

John 1:4-5 ESV