From Darkness to Light


                                  


When you think of who you are, what first comes to mind?  We’ve all been at parties making small talk and often, the first thing people say is “what do you do?”  It’s easy to express your value, especially at an acquaintance level, which focusing on the outward.  It’s awkward to share who you are inside.  Now I’m not advocating we all go out and share our truth with everyone we met.  Be wise and know that privilege is earned by those who over time have earned your trust.  But honestly, I think most people don’t share who they are because they don’t know who they are.  The human race endlessly chases things on the outside to try to define who they are on the inside.  

 

The Bible in 1 Peter 2:9-10 describes who we are in a world searching for identity.  

 

But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light.  Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

 


I remember reading these verses as a new Christian and the emphasis was on the adjectives.  I loved thinking of myself as chosen, royal, and holy, because I felt rejected, ordinary, and worthless.  As I circle back to these verses I am aware of the nouns: I am a race, priesthood, nation, and people.  I can’t be who God is making me to be without being connected to other believers.  

 

Part of my identity needs to be grounded in the church.  Though coming to Christ is an individual decision, and seeing who I am in Him is foundational, I also need to embrace that isn’t just about me but that I belong to others undergoing the same transformation.   

 

For those that have already discovered this truth, the online model of church just isn’t the same.  Many churches are now encouraging people to meet safely in small groups as there is such joy in the physical gathering.  

The role of the gathering of believers has played a part of each of our individual stories in coming out of darkness to light.  As it was when the earth was created, and God separated the light from the darkness[1], He calls us out of our spiritual darkness.  Though it starts with an individual call to choose Christ, many don’t stay connected to the faith unless they have a group of fellow travelers alongside them.  

 

In my own life, the transition from darkness to light happened my junior year of college.  To pad my resume, I started working for a local church with at-risk children.  This was a Christian ministry, and all the other counselors there were believers.  I had lived the first 2 years of my college experience with a different group, ladies I had met in the dorms, none of whom where Christians.  We had stayed together as roommates, as freshman often do.  After that summer, where I met a new group of friends, ones who lifted me up in Christ, I knew I had to make a change.  I broke my lease and moved in with one of the co-counselors I had made through the day camp that summer.  Friendship with her led to a bible study and a group of friends who made a profound impact on my life because they gave me my first experience of studying the bible, which is my calling on how to impact the body of Christ today. 

 

The thought of the trajectory of my life without this group of friends is almost too much to contemplate.  I might never have met my husband, though I felt constantly ashamed and guilty, would have stayed partying and sleeping around, might not even have the career I had today…I had already been on probation with the education department as I had got a minor in possession drinking underage.  God used his people to bring mercy into my life and give me something I didn’t deserve-the encouragement me to stop coping with life my own way and lean into the way God had for me to live.  A life of vulnerably, holiness, and peace that far exceeded the mess I had made for myself.  

 

And I will lead the blind in a way that they do not know, in paths that they have not known I will guide them. I will turn the darkness before them into light, the rough places into level ground. These are the things I do, and I do not forsake them. Isaiah 42:16

 

I was blind and didn’t know it, I couldn’t see and needed light.  The God who does not forsake brought a group of ladies into my life back in 1998 who made my rough places smooth. Now because of their impact on me, I can write this blog and share how Scripture is shaping me.  It’s my unique contribution to the body of Christ and my way of paying it forward.  

 

As I close up my thoughts consider this.  What is a time in your life that a community of believers has made an impact in your faith?  What are your unique gifts that even as we are scattered, you can loan to another to build them up? Are you longing for and praying for the ability to gather again, hearing the voices of the saints lifted up in worship? The Lord my God lightens our darkness[2]  and has given us His people to show the way.  



[1] Genesis 1:4b

[2] Psalm 18:28

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