fear

I think all fears are related to a universal fear of the dark. We fear the unknown. We fear the dangerous. The fear loss. We fear evil. Everything we fear is darkness.

Except, of course, that many of us also maintain a fear of the light as well.

We fear that the light will shine on our infirmities. We fear that the light will show our weaknesses. We fear that the light will take away the ugly stuff that we rather like.

The Psalmist exclaims with joy, "The LORD is my light and my salvation; whom then shall I fear?"

And yet we keep fearing the very light that longs to save us.

How do we get out of our own way and rejoice in God's light and salvation? For the Psalmist, it seem that he finds solace in the LORD because all around him is an enemy pressing in, all around him is fear and darkness, and so he has no choice but to rejoice in the light.

And maybe that's our problem. We don't see darkness as an enemy, but as a hiding place. We don't have the immediacy of the Psalmists fears, and so we fear the light instead. We are so comfortable in the darkness that the light has become the unknown, dangerous place that threatens to take away everything we know.

But that is, of course, a lie. It is the darkness that threatens us, not the light. The light is our salvation. I pray that you have the courage to escape the falsified comfort of darkness in order to rejoice in the life giving light.