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I am corresponding with a new friend in Italy. In a recent e-mail he mentioned something that Plato said: "We can easily forgive a child who is afraid of the dark; the real tragedy of life is when men are afraid of the light."
You would think that Christians would cherish the light, welcoming it with open arms. After all, our Lord is the Lord of Light and we are called children of light (Ephesians 5:8). But sadly that is not always true. The light can blind us. It may even cause us to stumble a bit until we get used to its brilliance. And if we are not careful, out of fear we might not just hesitate to give our eyes a chance to adjust -- we might turn away, call the light we saw darkness, and return to the dimmer but more comfortable illumination of the past.
As I grow in the Lord, I find that some of the things I believed in the childhood of my faith were incomplete, or at times, even untrue. I see something in a new way and am overcome with its size and the implications of what it means. The new light threatens the security of my old dimmer understanding and it seems risky to let go of the old for the richer glory of the new. I was re-reading Jay Adam's book The Grand Demonstration not too long ago. I do not agree with the premise of his book but there are some interesting thoughts in it. One sentence jumped out at me -- "...follow the Scriptures, even when they lead into new and lonely paths."
Sounds challenging doesn't it? Even exciting? But it isn't. It can be lonely and frightening, especially when other people don't see what you see, when your light is their darkness. When that happens, we are faced with a choice: to embrace the light, or to deny it and return to the old light that is now a new darkness. Sooner or later, if you are growing in your faith, this kind of thing will happen to you, and when it does, I encourage you to remember what Plato said and take Dr. Adam's advice -- "...follow the Scriptures, even when they lead into new and lonely paths."
You would think that Christians would cherish the light, welcoming it with open arms. After all, our Lord is the Lord of Light and we are called children of light (Ephesians 5:8). But sadly that is not always true. The light can blind us. It may even cause us to stumble a bit until we get used to its brilliance. And if we are not careful, out of fear we might not just hesitate to give our eyes a chance to adjust -- we might turn away, call the light we saw darkness, and return to the dimmer but more comfortable illumination of the past.
As I grow in the Lord, I find that some of the things I believed in the childhood of my faith were incomplete, or at times, even untrue. I see something in a new way and am overcome with its size and the implications of what it means. The new light threatens the security of my old dimmer understanding and it seems risky to let go of the old for the richer glory of the new. I was re-reading Jay Adam's book The Grand Demonstration not too long ago. I do not agree with the premise of his book but there are some interesting thoughts in it. One sentence jumped out at me -- "...follow the Scriptures, even when they lead into new and lonely paths."
Sounds challenging doesn't it? Even exciting? But it isn't. It can be lonely and frightening, especially when other people don't see what you see, when your light is their darkness. When that happens, we are faced with a choice: to embrace the light, or to deny it and return to the old light that is now a new darkness. Sooner or later, if you are growing in your faith, this kind of thing will happen to you, and when it does, I encourage you to remember what Plato said and take Dr. Adam's advice -- "...follow the Scriptures, even when they lead into new and lonely paths."
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