Sunday, October 16, 2011 – 1 John 1:5-7

At Bible study this week, we did a little “dynamic”. We went into the library, and I turned off all the lights. I told the girls to go find their favorite book. These were their reactions:

Girl 1: “Ay no- it is too dark. I’m scared. I’m not going.” And she walked outside of the library and sat back in her chair.

Girl 2: “What do you want us to do? We have to find our favorite book? How will we do that? What?” And she gave up, went back outside, and sat in her chair.

Girl 3: She walked to the books, grabbed a book, and came back. “Here is a book,” she said. “It is not my favorite, but it is a book.”

Girl 4: She walked to the books, wandered around for a little while, and came back, empty handed.

Girl 5: She walked to the books, carrying her slice of watermelon left over from dinner, and stood there for a while eating. Then she came back and sat down.

Our lesson for the week came from 1 John, the verses that say, “This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him, yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live by the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin.”

God is light, he is truth, and if we know him, then we will walk in darkness no longer. As I gave the girls an order to go get their favorite book, so God gives us an order: to let our light shine before men, like a city on a hill (Matthew 5:14-16). Sometimes we have the same reactions as my Bible study girls had. We see the darkness, and we get scared. We don’t go, and we don’t do what God has commanded. Or, we hear God’s command, but in the darkness we get confused and indecisive. We don’t go because we are indifferent to our calling. Or, we go, but we do what we want- we follow a version of God’s command. We put our own spin on what he would have us do. Or, we go, and wander. We are in darkness, and we can no longer see the way. Or, sometimes, in darkness, we do exactly what we are not supposed to do. We sin, break God’s commandments, and ignore what he has called us to.

I know this is a stretch to make comparisons, but at least that night in Bible study, it came out so clearly. When we choose the darkness, not one of us can fulfill the command God has given us, mainly, to be light.

At any moment, the girls could have asked me to turn on the lights, and I would have. But they didn’t ask, and so they remained in darkness.