Lighting up the Dark Places

Good morning!

I just have a quick minute to share with you this morning. It's a full day. School pictures, Panera, a business meeting with my co-workers - I work from home, housework, new tires, laundry...you know, it's Monday!

But I wanted to share a quick word with you.

We installed a new kitchen light over the weekend. We've lived in our house for over 5 years now and the one thing that I disliked about my kitchen is that they didn't light it enough. I have one small light over my sink and one small light over the island. The stinkin' light in the hood of my microwave over my stove burns out every 3 weeks so it was dark over there, too. There were lots of shadows in my kitchen and every time I cooked I found myself struggling to see because of all the dark places where the light wouldn't reach.

Not so now. My kitchen is now flooded with light. In fact, the first few times we turned on the light in there after the new install, we found ourselves squinting because it was so much brighter.

Then the light began to do what light does...illuminating places that had long been in the dark.

I saw new things. I saw crumbs that had hidden on my counter for too long. I found imperfections on my counter tops that had not been seen in 5 years. I found cobwebs that needed to be swept away. And so I cleaned. Anywhere the light spilled and revealed something that needed to go, it went. Anywhere the light revealed something that needed correcting, I did it.

But when I cooked. Oh goodness...when I cooked I could finally see! I was finally able to effectively and joyfully use the room for its intended purpose. I never realized that darkness could be so constraining and how trying to cook in shadows and darkness could be less than joyful.

And so it goes...

Our lives need light. Without light things get hidden and purposes aren't fulfilled completely because of the constraints of shadows and pockets of darkness.

We can do it for awhile, maybe even years, but not productively, on task, with purpose and with joy.

Until the Light comes.

He floods our soul with His illuminating Word. Crumbs that need to be cleared away are exposed. Shadows are dispelled. What He intends to be perfect can be corrected to be that way. Where the Light spills, joy comes. It isn't constraining. It is freeing.

The Light might seem uncomfortably bright at first. We didn't realize how accustomed to the dark we had become. But when we get used to the Light, we can't live without out it. To go back to being in the dark would be unthinkable, unimaginable. The dark is darker than ever when you have walked in the Light.

I waited five years before I realized just how dark my kitchen had gotten. It took a trip to Home Depot and about an hour of work to bring in the light.

We don't have to wait that long or even do that much work. We can get up from where we are right now, open His Word and turn the switch.

I want to see everything that He wants to show me today. I don't want to miss a thing by trying to go through my day getting used to the dark.

I want to walk in the Light.

"Your Word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Psalm 119:105

"The lamp of the Lord searches the spirit of a man; it searches out his inmost being." Proverbs 20:27

"The unfolding of Your Word gives light; it gives understanding to the simple." Psalm 119:130

"For these commands are a lamp, this teaching is a light, and the corrections of discipline are the way to life." Proverbs 6:23

Blessings,
Dori