The Ally of Darkness

"And this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil." (John 3:19)

There is a scene in "The Dark Knight Rises", where the bad guy Bane and Batman are fighting. Batman shuts the lights off and Bane, who has a very creepy voice by the way, says, 

"Ah you think darkness is your ally? You merely adopted the dark. I was born in it, molded by it. I didn't see the light until I was already a man, by then it was nothing to me but blinding!" 

This quote made me think of John 3:19-21. Like Bane, we start off in darkness. We are born lost. And the longer we reject Christ, the more we become comfortable in that darkness and the more light becomes hard to tolerate. We can get so comfortable in the dark that light is just what Bane said, "blinding". We can come to hate it. It hurts. 

Have you ever been dead asleep in a dark room and someone come in and flipped on the light? Dude that is painful. It makes your eyes truly hurt. But think about this, that pain is only temporary, it goes away. In darkness we may find comfort, but we are very limited in what we can do in the dark, because our sight is limited or nonexistent, depending on the amount of darkness. But in the light, there is freedom. We can see clearly and enjoy so much more. But to get to the light, we have to come through the pain of the light. 

When we come to Christ, when we realize our brokenness and emptiness  and our disobedience to a God who loves us, it is painful. But that pain, bring great joy and freedom. 

Don't let the darkness be your ally, make the light your Lord. 

Vern