“It is when a person walks at night that they stumble,
for they have no light.” John 11:10
Lets first take a look at this from a physical sense. Makes a lot of sense, right? I’m guessing we’ve all been there before, walking around during the night and stumbling on something we didn’t see. It probably caused us some pain, maybe we even needed to go to a doctor for healing.
But could that phrase mean something more? When we live according to our human nature, we live in darkness. For some of us, that may sound scary. For me, it was a matter of both comfort and uncertainty. When I lived in a season of extreme darkness, I was lost. I had no idea who I really was—who God made me to be. I stayed in that darkness for a while partially because it seemed to be safe. If I started walking to try to find the way out, I would inevitably stumble along the way and experience pain, so I stayed put.
Turns out, God had other plans in mind. You see, there is this light out there that is so bright, darkness can’t even comprehend it. So much so, that, the night is as bright as the day. Darkness and this light are the same. This light, it saves. This light, it found me in my discomfort. This light, shines bright enough to bring peace to all of us.
The best part? I didn’t do anything to deserve it, and yet it still chose me. But why? Well, you see, there’s this thing called grace, and this light, it gives the loftiest grace of them all.
Thank God, because once I saw this light, I realized just how dark my human nature was. Why would anyone want to shine a light on the person I knew I was in my darkness?
It turns out, this grace, this lofty grace, was unconditional to anything I had done. I didn’t deserve it. None of us deserve it. And yet, there this grace was, waiting for me. With this grace, I gained strength. Strength to stumble my way out of the darkness. Strength to discover my true self in this light. And strength to shine this light to others so that they may know who they are as well.
The work required to free us from the darkness of our human nature has already been finished, all that’s left for us to do is receive. Receive the light. Receive the grace. And live in the freedom that only this light and this grace provide.