Men of the LightSample

Exposing Darkness

While sleeping deeply one night a number of years ago, I was woken up by my young daughter at my bedroom door.

“Daddy?” she said in the dead quiet.

“Yes? Huh?” I startled, rapidly awake.

“Oh, you’re up?” she asked, suddenly flipping on the light switch, illuminating the room, and flooding my adjusted-to-the-dark sleepy eyes with blinding light and no small amount of instant pain.

“Argh! What is it?!” I snapped, covering my eyes with my hands, and causing my daughter to burst into tears and rush to her room. It required a little soothing to calm her down and get her the glass of water she sought, but all was well.

No doubt we’ve all been there, when light suddenly smashes into darkness and our eyes temporarily pay the price. As good and necessary as light is, it doesn’t always feel good when it first arrives.

At Christmas, when we celebrate the birth of Jesus, we celebrate the light of God coming into a dark world. And as Jesus says in today’s verse, He came as light so that we could come out of the hopeless darkness and know God through Him.

But darkness doesn’t always like it when the light is turned on. Whenever light and darkness meet, darkness always loses ground—it has a 100% loss record when it comes to darkness vs. light.

Light is batting 1.000 and remains undefeated.

But darkness likes the dark, including the darkness in us.

Jesus said, “This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil” (John 3:19).

That sin we battle against does not like being exposed or called out. But men who walk in Christ’s light know better; we know that the illumination of our sin is actually the mercy of God, a desire of our loving Father to see us set free from the dark things that bind us.

So, men of the Light look to and trust God’s Word, letting it expose our sin. We open ourselves up to the Spirit’s convicting power, and we find some men whom we trust who can hold us accountable, as we welcome the gift of God’s convicting light.

Prayer: Lord, it’s not always easy to shine the light on ourselves, but we know that it’s for our good. May Your light expose anything within me that is not right, and may Your grace forgive me and cleanse me from all sin. May I love the light more than the dark. Amen.

Reflection: What is something “dark” that you have loved more than light? Find a brother that you trust and share with him today, asking him to pray for you.