Rob Hill
Getting Used to the Dark
Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” John 8:12
There is a common saying in our society, that when a person is in the midst of a forest, they “can’t see the wood for the trees.” We too are living in a forest, but it is a jungle of sin whose nature we have largely become blind to. Without God’s word there are no signposts or streetlights to guide us through the tangled vegetation of life. God has promised that His word is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path (Ps 119:105), His guidelines for our behavior are for our happiness, and He has marked the path that we must follow to go from this world to the next. We aren’t here to get used to the dark, but to walk in the light. “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your father in heaven.” (Matt 5:16) God has chosen us to live the light, to follow His path, and be a heavenly example to our fellow travelers who too are living in this forest of sadness and evil.
“It is a law both of the intellectual and the spiritual nature that by beholding we become changed. The mind gradually adapts itself to the subjects upon which it is allowed to dwell. It becomes assimilated to that which it is accustomed to love and reverence. Man will never rise higher than his standard of purity or goodness or truth. If self is his loftiest ideal, he will never attain to anything more exalted. Rather, he will constantly sink lower and lower. The grace of God alone has power to exalt man. Left to himself, his course must inevitably be downward.”
E. G White – The Great Controversy pg 555