Scripture: John 3:20
All who do wicked things hate the light and don’t come to the light for fear that their actions will be exposed to the light.
Thought for the Day: What scares you? What frightens you? It is interesting how the answer to that question has probably changed some throughout life. Depending on your age, what you said half your lifetime ago is not what you would say today. At the same time, it can leave you staring at the ceiling late into the night. You may not be expecting a ghoul to appear from the closet as you did when you were six years old, but the imagination can still conjure up all kinds of anxiety-producing items hiding in the dark. A lot of the things that frighten us are a bit embarrassing, silly, shameful or awkward… or at least that’s the way we feel. We might even consider them Phaulos, the Greek word we translate as evil. Yet the word can also describe something that is worthless or without value. So much of what we fear is really rather meaningless if only we could bring it into the light. We often feel concern over what others might say when we allow for these items to step from the shadows that have concealed them for far too long. In a lot of situations, I don’t know if we “hate the light” as much as fear the light and what it will reveal. Getting past this fear is the necessary step toward freedom from those things that cause anxiety at night.
Prayer: Free me, O Generous God, from my own fears that keep part of my life living in the dark. Free me by bringing all of who I am into the light where your redemptive love does its thing. Amen.
SUNDAY’S SERMON
