Sunlight in my Soul

Daylight Savings Time (and a lack of rain) have allowed me to see much more of the sun this week than I have in quite a long time. This week, I have a few more thoughts on the spiritual imagery of light and what it means for us. Fair warning: I love metaphors, and I love philosophy, and we are about to get waist-deep in both of them. But don’t worry! I’ll get back to the practical part of things before we’re done!

“The light came into the darkness, and the darkness could not overcome it.”

We talk a great deal about “light versus darkness” as a metaphor for good vs evil – and it’s a very apt metaphor. But when you look at normal everyday life, you’ll notice that light and darkness don’t actually combat each other. Darkness is not the opposite of light; it’s the absence of light, just as cold is an absence of heat.

Why is this important? Because when darkness contends with light, the two don’t actually combat. Light defeats darkness simply by existing, by ‘being light’ and being in a place. The presence of light means that darkness has already lost. By definition, light always wins. Think about it. When you open a dark closet, the shadow doesn’t creep out and fill the entryway; instead, the entryway light fills it.

People say you have to have darkness to have light, but that’s nonsense. You can imagine a world where light penetrated everything. You can’t have light without the possibility of darkness, but darkness itself isn’t necessary. It isn’t natural; it requires some object to intervene and block the light. Light fills everything by its very nature unless it is opposed; darkness is only the shadow of that opposition.

You know what I’m going to say. Good and evil are just the same. Good can exist without evil, but evil cannot exist without good. It is the absence of good, the rejection of good, the deprivation of good, and as such, in the end, it will always lose, by the nature of goodness itself.*

“You are the light of the World”

With that in mind, how are we to live? As lights! But we are not people who naturally radiate goodness. If God’s goodness is like the sun, we are the moon; our reflected light waxes and wanes and must always come from somewhere else. The moon is not a perfect mirror; it only reflects a few percent of the sun’s light. But that few percent can light up the world like a floodlight on a dark night. On the other hand, if the moon is oriented differently towards the sun, it can completely block the sunlight the earth desperately needs. Again, you know what I’m going to say. How we orient ourselves toward God and others can make all the difference in the lives of the people around us.

“While you have the light, believe in the light, that you may become sons of light.”

Finally, we come to the quality of sunlight I have noticed most over the past couple of weeks: it is something that always gets taken for granted. It’s even a saying – “as sure as the sun will rise…” We become so used to always having the sun, we don’t think we need it. We make up our own imitations suns in order to suit our particular needs, and we shut ourselves inside and lose our sense of time and perspective. And the funny thing is, while I’m doing this, it seems completely fine. I genuinely think I’m fine without the sun – just like I think I’m fine without sleep if I’m sleep-deprived for long enough. But as soon as I have a bright, sunny day or a good night’s sleep, I realize what a fool I’ve been. Nothing compares to the real thing.

In the same way, we often think we don’t need the light of God’s word, or his Spirit’s direction, in our lives on a day-to-day basis. We let our spiritual disciplines slide, and we genuinely think it isn’t making a difference. But I’m here to tell you, it is. You can’t be a light for the world if you’re not walking in the light yourself. Learn to drink in God’s light. Nothing compares to the real thing.

Walk in the Light

Well, there you have it – my exploration of light. I hope it encouraged you to think a little more deeply about all the mentions of light in Scripture – and perhaps to go outside and take in some sun.

*I didn’t come up with this, by the way. This was Plato and Augustine’s idea.

“Sunrise” by FotoArt MB is licensed under CC BY-SA 2.0