The Fog that obscures

In some of my prayers, I've been meditating on this particular line from the opening of the Gospel of John:

"A light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."

As a basic metaphor, this is very clear: the dark is always totally revealed by light, according to the power of the light source. In this analogy, Christ is an all powerful light source, not a dimming headlamp. So if he is a light brighter than the sun, the darkness of our sin is totally lit up, showing us everything in our hearts and lives. According to scripture, His truth reveals everything clearly:

And yet there are many times in my life that I've lived in confusion, not clarity. I've questioned myself: "if I am so confused and bear such doubt, how can I be a true follower of Christ?" There is a tension between what is promised in scripture & the reality of my life. I know I'm not the only who feels this way sometimes. Maybe you do too.

God revealed to me the problem in my heart: I live by the light, but my mind is filled with fog. Fog is not darkness; it is when particulate hangs in the air. When light touches it, the light is reflected back before it reveals what lies beyond. Spiritual fog is the things in our lives that aren't explicitly evil, but they begin to fill everything up all around us. It can become so thick you can only see what's right in front of your face. This is how the Enemy of man gets to us. The dark can't have power in the Christian life unless it becomes obscured by busyness, or media, or any other number of pursuits that can be good, but absorb all our time & mental energy. This is where the confusion comes from.

Praise the Lord, the light still shines & he wants to reveal himself more than we want to know him. He reaches out to us in many ways. He can use church, songs, sermons, people to speak truth when we need to hear it. Maybe we experience difficulties that blow all the unimportant stuff away. Health problems, the loss of a job, a broken relationship: all of these can be windstorms that clear the field of view & show what needs to change. God allows all things to awaken us to himself, to know him better.

I've decided to heed God's call & not wait for another storm in my life to shock me into submission. I am eliminating all the things that might distract me, & opening more space in my life to spend time with Jesus Christ. He's always with us; how amazing would it be to experience & perceive him every single day. This is my prayer for all of us: that we would listen to God and allow his light to cut through all the fog & reveal all that he intends to change, so we can know Him well.