Light versus Dark, Part 2

So what is so great about light?  Well, it is a great disinfectant!  It readily kills germs and it will cleanse us too, once we develop enough willingness to place our "germs" out there to be disinfected. Once we tell someone else all our dirty little secrets, the power that those secrets once carried vanishes into thin air.  The yoke of oppression we carried around due to those secrets is and always will be heavier than the yoke of Jesus.  I hear this saying often, 'We are only as sick as our secrets.' How true! Our soul sickness is caused by a self imposed prison sentence.  We convict and condemn ourselves to a spiritual death when we hang on to these things.  Yet, we hang on to them because our pride cannot stomach the ridicule and shame that comes from their disclosure to someone other than ourselves.  Therefore, we can all agree that our pride, at least false pride, is out to kill us, not so much physically as spiritually.  And that's the worst death of all!  

Coming into the light (bringing our secrets to others attention) is painful.  Yet, light always comes at a cost.  In my house, I have to flick a switch that then opens up the circuit to let power flow to the light bulb so that it may shine.  The higher the watts, the higher the voltage used, and thus the more resistance involved.  So, in obtaining more light, we encounter more resistance which is equivalent to friction.  So the brighter the light, the greater the friction.  The pain and costs are higher depending on how bright you want to be.  How clean and free do you want to be?

The same is true for a candle.  You must first light the wick which results in a burning process. Burning suggests suffering.  Therefore, people like Martin Luther, Bunyan, Jonathan Edwards, and Calvin all endured suffering, and that suffering produced in them a light so bright they are talked and written about to this very day. On the contrary, there is very little cost to keeping things in the dark.  Yet, while keeping my sins a secret may protect me from harm in the material world, it will undoubtedly cause irreparable damage to us in the spiritual world.  

So, I find the following at work in all peoples lives.  There will be those who choose to live in the dark, i.e. keep their sins to themselves.  These folks do not suffer much in this world.  For example, they may not have had their story written up in the local newspaper about how they were arrested for driving drunk or lost their job due to public records documenting a problem with drugs and alcohol.  Yet, inside they are a dying a painful death marked by secrecy.  These folks gain on earth, but lose in the spiritual world.  Then there are those who have endured a public spectacle after having all their "dirty laundry" aired for everyone to see.  They will likely have "trouble in this world."  They may find it hard and difficult to obtain employment, friends (or those that seemed to be friends) may alienate them, and they may have to go through a time of exquisite loneliness.  Yet, what does Jesus say?  Take heart, I have overcome the world!  So, this last person may lose out in this world, but gain a life of eternal spirit that cannot be measured in human terms.  The most important question then becomes, which would you rather be?  Is it really worth gaining the whole world, only to lose your soul for all eternity in the process?