I started out my sleepy Monday morning work routine at the church emptying and re-bagging six outdoor trashcans spread throughout the campus. “Gonna have to do this quick,” I muttered to myself as I left the ethereal warmth of the building and ventured out into the mostly empty parking lot. (!!!) I very quickly realized my flimsy t-shirt and long-sleeve button-down wasn’t going to cut it in the 20-something degree weather. I scurried back inside and grabbed my zip-up jacket, wondering if I had anything else in my car that might help the situation. But no, I wasn’t prepared. So I took a deep breath and forayed out into the winter landscape still clinging to warm thoughts. I pushed my cart down the sidewalk, treasuring the emerging sunshine making its debut over the horizon…its warmth surprisingly tangible. But as I made my way to trashcan 3 and 4, my path descended into the shadow of the behemoth-sized building in front of me. (!!! again) The glorious sunshine was gone and, gulp, so was the warmth. I held my arms to my sides a little tighter, put my head down and walked faster, changing out the trash bags in record time. 😊 After a few minutes of walking through the frigid shadow, I once again arrived to the slowly creeping boundary between darkness and light and triumphantly stepped into the sunlight once again, now with a much greater respect for that glowing ball of warm and toasty happiness.
Made me think…
We often make the conscious choice to exist in the cold shadows of spirituality as perpetrators of a fallenness that informs just about everything we do. Like a cloak, our sin’s dark, sticky tentacles slowly encapsulate us, its hold on us further fortified with each errant decision. Meanwhile, our soul is lulled to sleep by the resulting separation from God. Sensing something is wrong, we desperately grope everywhere around us with despondent and blurry eyes, franticly seeking something to warm our damaged soul in the thick and uncomfortable darkness. We find and put on a shredded scarf of our career, the tattered mittens of wealth…we don a ragtag toboggan cap of misplaced intimacy and put on the boots of addictions even though there are gaping holes in the toes. Tragically, but as expected, all of it fails and the shivers of our soul only intensify. Unremedied, our spirit begins to gasp for life now surrounded by the blackened sheets of spiritual ice that slowly constrict, extinguishing our will, our hope and our eternity. At some point, we will finally succumb to our sinfulness, falling into eternity decked out in all the useless “gear” we mustered, but still frozen from the inside out.
If only we would call out to God…the One Whose Light bores through our icy confines, warming our incoherent spirit and melting away the chill of things that held us hostage for so long. His Light is so strong, all the fleshly means we enlisted to try and keep our soul warm become sweaty, stifling and no longer necessary. His healing Presence is all we need, if we’d only ask. As we shed our dependence on our careers, our vices, our failures, our addictions, and our excuses for that deliverance, God’s dazzling Light continues to pour into us in attempts to restore us and we become more and more vulnerable and naked in His sight.
That right there is where many draw the line. They believe allowing God to burn through our coverings and heal the broken person we really are isn’t worth it because it elicits the very shame and guilt God wishes to absolve. Instead, we silently suffer, our spiritual joints locked beneath the ill-fated raiment we managed to scrape together. Think about that for a minute…healing and forgiveness or perpetually suffering as a result of our pride?
If you aren’t already enjoying the presence of His Light, I plead with you to run, walk, crawl, even inch your way towards His Light, yelling out to Him with whatever voice remains in you. Know His Light is not static…it’s not confined to the four walls of any church or any other “sacred space,” but travels quickly and ferociously when you, His most treasured creation, call upon His Name. And then the healing begins…
I would love to hear your story, no matter where you are at the moment. Drop me a line so I can pray for you and encourage you in the days ahead. Hang in there…
<εφημεριος><
