So long darkness.
You’re tired of living in darkness. You’ve lived there so long that you can’t imagine a way out. It has become familiar, and it even feels safe. After all, that’s what you know more than anything else. You’re drowning in the pit of hell on earth. You can’t get out, not even if you tried. It’s like quicksand, and you keep thinking there can’t be any sinking lower than you’ve already sunk.
But still you’re sinking. Down. Depressed. Sometimes suicidal. Hurting yourself. Hurting others. Just plain old hurting. It’s so dark in there, isn’t it? If there were a light, if only there were a light, how would you even find the switch to turn it on? You can’t. You’re too enveloped in darkness, too clinging to the wet, muddy, stinky ooze of dark mud and yuck and sand that holds onto you, that you don’t even have a free hand to yank you up, to yank you out, like they do when they rescue kids, and dogs, and cats from sinkholes.
Oh, this sinkhole you are in. If only you could reach up that hand – and if only a hand would reach out to you. But you know a hand would never be enough. Person after person, hand after hand, has tried to rescue you up, to pull you up and out. They have pulled sometimes a little, inches, sometimes a foot, with their tears falling down on you – and anger and frustration sometimes.
But your hands don’t hold on for long, if they hold on at all. So you don’t even bother to try to get your hand out from its stuck-ness. Why bother? You’re tired of bothering. Darkness doesn’t swallow you, like you’ve heard it said. It already has. You’re there to stay. Aren’t you? Or not?
You don’t have to live the way you’re living. There is a way out. His name is Jesus. When He says, “I am the way, the truth, and the life (John 14:6 KJV).” He means it. He is the WAY. He is the TRUTH. And He is the Life. He offers us a way out of the bondage, the strongholds, the captivity in which we have lived our lives. He offers us the TRUTH – God’s Word – to deliver us from the darkness, the evil, the wickedness of this world and that has plagued our lives and in which we have lived. And He offers us new life – through faith in Him.
Are you tired of living in darkness? Come out. But you can’t, can you? And you’re tired of hearing people calling down into the dark, dank, sinkhole of your life telling you to just put one foot in front of the other, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, where there’s a will there’s a way, get your life together already, we’re lifting you up in prayer. If they’re lifting you up, you wonder miserably, why the heck are you going down even further?
You’ve given up. Or you’re just about there. One inch away. Yesterday you considered ending it all. You even figured out how. You planned your letter. Didn’t you? Maybe not. You wrote it long ago. Your heart is sagging. Your flesh is eaten away with the sores of sorrow. You’re tired of hearing them pray. Or maybe nobody even knows how dark it is inside your life. You’re like a mummy. Untouchable. Unknown. Buried.
Not moving. Still. Stuck. They keep throwing Bibles at you, but if you open them at all you don’t understand the words. Or maybe you’ve never heard of one, or crossed paths with one, or done much more than open the cover and stare at black on white that blurs all together in your waterfall of tears and the sludge of depression – as your shaking fingers, and your shaking hands, and your shaking heart shut it closed again. Closed like your hardened heart, which is shuttered in walls and blinds too heavy too open.
The Band-aids aren’t working. Counselors. Medications. Therapists. Self-help groups. Books. Books. Videos. Tapes, whatever. Ideas. Religions. Philosophers. Philosophy. Oh, the Internet. But you can’t find it on the Net. You’re trapped even there. Trapped in ever darkness, as the world dims in the darkness it refuses to let go.
Every once in a while you see someone who holds a candle. A smile. A genuine light. You’re surprised. Weren’t they so dark once themselves? What happened? They were dying. They were destitute. They were discouraged. Depressed. They knew such darkness. They even shared yours. What’s that you see on their face? What’s that you say? You see a shining light? Their light is shining? Impossible. But there it is. For a moment, an instant, a brilliant second, their light falls on the shadow of your life. And you wonder, can it really be? Could I, could I possibly, could I possibly have a light like that all my own – that I could carry? Me?
The light goes by. The light moves on. They offered you a light. Not for your cigarette. What’s that they were talking about? A light that shines even in darkness? A light that will never fade? A light that will be passed like a torch through the world from person to person like before the Olympics? No, a light even bigger, even greater? A light that does not end when the Olympics does? A light that will shine even amid a darkening world? Huh? Seriously?
Seriously.
Let me ask you a question.
Do you want out?
There is a Way. There is a Truth. There is a Life.
Jesus stands waiting.
Are you ready?
So long darkness.
Joh 8:12 “Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life.”
Mat_5:16 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.
Rom 10:8 “But what saith it? The word is nigh thee, even in thy mouth, and in thy heart: that is, the word of faith, which we preach;
Rom 10:9 That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
Rom 10:10 For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.
Rom 10:11 For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed.
Rom 10:12 For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
Rom 10:13 For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”
If you are tired of living in darkness, and are seeking the way out, please feel free to call me at 843-338-2219 or e-mail me at love@walkbyfaithministry.com. I would be blessed, and honored, and privileged to introduce you to Jesus Christ or to encourage you in your journey with Jesus if you already know Him.
Father, God, I believe with all of my heart that you have called me to write this. And I believe you will use this to touch and transform lives. I humbly come before you and ask you to use this writing, and to use my heart and life, to be a beacon of light, to be a lighthouse, to be a temple of your Holy Spirit, to carry light out into a sea – a world – of darkness. Please draw people to yourself through your life. Thank you, dear Father, for delivering me and translating me from darkness into light, and life. You, Jesus, truly are the light and the love of my life! Amen!