Padiddle

Have you ever been driving on a familiar road to a familiar destination and you are set on auto pilot (you know when you are conscious but you are not conscious that you are conscious as you mindlessly apply foot to gas and pedal almost methodically with no reference of time passed). I was driving with my baby beside me at the wheel (good ole oldie reference) back to our apartment a couple of months ago when we found ourselves in such a position of unaware traveling. It was sometime during this trip that Jen exclaimed with a bit of panic,


“Where are we?”
“What do you mean?” I ask as I begin looking around for familiar territory.

“I mean where are we?” she asks again with obvious frustration in her voice as she does not know how to explain the scenario any clearer.

As I continued to look around, the relevancy of her question became more apparent. The once familiar lit up road with fast food restaurants, consignment shops, and the small kingdom of Wal-Mart are nowhere to be seen. The once knowable suburban strip has become reminiscent of a dark small farm town. It seemed as if we were instantly transported to my wife’s hometown of Cordova, Illinois which has no stoplights and their only restaurant is attached to a gas station. It was after just a few short moments that Jen realized the problem, the power in the immediate one mile radius had gone out. Police were rushing to the edges of the outage, cars were pulling over in confusion, and droves were being ushered out of Wal-Mart, and when we got to our apartment people were standing outside with candles adorned in hand, unsure how to handle the situation. Jen and I did what seemed to make sense when all power has failed, we went to bed.

Light is important. It was the invention of the light bulb (thank you Thomas Edison) that led to an evolution of human life. No longer would our race be held captive by the setting and rising of the sun. No longer would candles be the only light to read by at night. Stores can be open at all hours of the night, work can be done around the clock, we can govern lights so as to govern our lives as we see fit. The only problem is that we suck at governing our own lives. The problem is that our human-made lights can fail at any time (it was perfect weather conditions when the lights went out in the one mile radius). Imagine running your life without any light.

Read 1 John 1:5-7, it says that God is light. The closer we allow ourselves to be to God the more we can see. The further away from God the darker and more confusing life becomes. God is light, but it is not a light we can govern or control. God is moving, and if we want to stay in the light we must move with God. I believe that if we find our lives in the dark, if we do not know where we are or how we got there, it is because we did not want to go where God the light was taking us. It is not a stretch to say that the world is in darkness, simply read the paper or watch the first 5 minutes of the news. If we are honest we may say our own life is in the dark or that we find ourselves in a cloud. Do you want to be found, do you want to be in the light? Are you ready for a glowing tan that radiates your life in the light? Come to God, and give your life over. Come to the scriptures and learn who this loving God is. Come to church and be strengthened by others.

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