Walking in darkness

I have been thinking about a part of a message I heard another pastor teach a few weeks ago. Podcasts are a wonderful thing! Anyway, in his message he was describing the problems a person has who has not trusted Christ as savior. He drew his comments from the books of John and 1 John, and here is what he concluded regarding the problems of those who are still without Christ. He said, simply, that the man without Christ has 3 core problems, 1. He is in darkness (more on that in a moment), 2. The darkness has blinded his eyes, and 3. He loves the darkness.

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I have been thinking over his observations for a while and then, this morning, remembered a situation that happened to me in my early 20's. I was living in an apartment complex and two doors down from me was a young man who was blind. We became acquainted and would greet one another when we ran into each other in the halls. The events I'm about to describe really happened and as I relate them they are quite funny on their own, but they bring truth to the comments the pastor I mentioned was describing.

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One day, passing each other in the halls of the apartment, my neighbor asked me to come over for dinner the next evening. I was glad to get some time to visit with him on a more personal level. I went to his apartment about 6pm the evening of our dinner, knocked on the door and was welcomed to his simple apartment. We had a good visit as he deftly prepared dinner for us. Then we sat as he served the meal, but something happened that I didn't expect. It began to grow dark outside. The one thing I didn't think about is the fact that a blind person doesn't know or care when it gets dark, it's always dark for them. But as we visited it grew darker and soon became hard for me to see my friend or the food on my plate. My friend didn't use the lights and probably had never turned them on. He didn't even think about my need for light, and so we visited in the dark. I did my best to find the food on my plate and navigate an evening of blindness.

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Here's what I realized- a blind person is in darkness and doesn't know about light. He only knows the dark. There is much he misses and is completely unaware of. This is the lost man. All he knows is darkness. He has no idea what is out there. But there is something even sadder- the darkness has blinded him to what is really available. He cannot and does not see what God has done for him. He's missing out. And lastly, most frankly, those who are lost love the darkness. It's comfortable to them. They fear the light for a hundred different reasons and so stay in the darkness.

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My evening of dinner in the dark was very enlightening. In these last few weeks I think I better understand a lost man's dilemma. Those who don't know Christ are walking in darkness. There is much to see, but they see none of it. There are rich rewards from seeing, but they see none of them. Because of their darkness they can't see all that God has provided. Seeing my friends without Christ in this way gives me a new compassion for their problem that I don't think I had before. I pray for those in darkness that they might see the light of Christ and really see for the first time. Walking in darkness was never God's plan for us.