Day Eight - Root out the darkness

We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, whom we have heard and seen. We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. He is the Word of life. This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard so that you may have fellowship with us. And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy.

This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all. So we are lying if we say we have fellowship with God but go on living in spiritual darkness; we are not practicing the truth. But if we are living in the light, as God is in the light, then we have fellowship with each other, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, cleanses us from all sin. (1 John 1:1-7 New Living Translation)

"God is light; in Him there is no darkness at all."

This morning I cleaned a pair of shoes, it has to be one of my favourite pastimes. As a young lad it was my chore to clean shoes and surprisingly I grew to enjoy it - perhaps I should get out more! Sometimes at home the family will put out a week’s worth of shoes, sometimes 8-10 pairs at a time for me to clean. A bit like the children’s story of the ‘Elves and the Shoemaker’. I don't know how I did it, but this time, I seemed to get more on my hands and on my shirt cuff than I did on the shoes. There were marks all over me. Tainted by polish.

There is darkness around us. We see the symptoms of it everywhere. Innocent people suffering, systems breaking down, hopelessness and fear gripping people in a choke hold of desperation. It is easy for us to be tainted by it all. To become either hardened or apathetic. We can be tainted by cynicism, or we can cross the road and not get involved.

In God there is no darkness. God is light that is pure. There is no taint of anything on God - no darkness. Even the darkest situations and circumstances can be penetrated by Him. Light has come.

Prayer

Lord God help me today to reflect upon my own life.

Show me the areas of darkness in me.

Where I have become hardened to the plight of others or where I have lost the will to do good, Lord help me. Bring your light and your forgiveness and help me today to walk in your light.

Allow me to see that in the darkest places it is possible for the light to shine brightest.

Amen.

Peter Thomas