God With UsSample

How well do you know the darkness?

As a pastor, I meet many people who feel like they know the darkness better than they know the light. Whether that darkness is experiences of sin and destruction, seasons of waiting, or loneliness, our familiar territory is often darkness.

The people of God were living through great darkness in the time of the prophet Isaiah. The prophet recorded many prophecies hundreds of years before Jesus was born that He ultimately fulfilled. One of those prophecies is recorded in chapter 9, where the text says, "The people walking in darkness have seen a great light. A light has dawned on those living in the land of darkness." That's a good piece of news that you might be wishing would happen to you.

Later in chapter 9, verse 6, we find a verse often quoted around Christmas time: "For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us, and the government will be on his shoulders. He will be named Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Eternal Father, Prince of Peace."

For so many of us today, the place we know the best is the darkness. But God's people aren't condemned to walk in darkness.

In my early 20s, I started grilling my food over charcoal. I had no idea what I was doing; frankly, I had no business working around a grill. On one particular day, I became impatient. While I was grateful for the taste my food would gain from the charcoal fire, the grill wasn't warming up fast enough. In my impatience, I reached for my extra large container of lighter fluid.

After spraying lighter fluid on the coals, the fire kicked up huge flames, and I had to jump back to avoid getting burned. That's precisely what darkness does to our shame and our fear. Darkness exponentially increases the amount of shame and fear we feel. We are in great danger when our most familiar territory is darkness because the shame and the fear we carry only grow more robust in the darkness.

Remember — if you want to kill a fire, you must remove the oxygen. In the same way, if you can take shame and fear and move them from darkness to light, you'll suck the power out of them.

Once we have dealt with shame and fear, we can experience the only life-giving thing that darkness fuels—rest. Last night, when we went to sleep, we likely turned off the lights in the room. The darkness gives us the space to rest as we get rid of all the distractions and things that could have our attention. Darkness can become a life-giving place when God is present with us in the darkness, transforming our shame and fear into love and peace.

There might be moments when light hitting your shame and fear feels as painful as morning light does to my children when they don't want to wake up and get ready for school. Yet light also pushes back the darkness, just as God with us pushes back our fear and shame. God's presence transforms us.

On the final day of this plan, we will read my favorite verse in the Christmas story—it has changed my life!