Baby Steps into the Light

One of the more popular games for kids to play is ‘Hide and Seek’. You don’t need any equipment like traditional sports and you really don't need many other kids in order to play. One of the best, and scariest, times to play is when it is dark outside. The number of places to hide increases significantly when it is dark and the ‘seeker’ is limited in their ability to find you. My favorite experience playing ‘Hide and Seek’ was when I was at a retreat with a group of teens and we were staying in a decent sized lodge. With the windows completely covered and with it being nighttime outside, the inside of the lodge was completely dark. My trick as a seeker was to be extremely quiet and listen for someone breathing or make fart noises and see if anyone laughed. My guess is that many of you have some fun and funny experiences playing this game as well. I also imagine that many of you, like myself, have also experienced the not so funny version of this game.

Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, "Where are you?"—Genesis 3:8-9

The game that we play, even as adults, is nothing new. Our instinctive response when we’ve done something wrong is to hide. Whether we, ourselves, are hiding or we are just hiding the evidence of what we’ve done, there is a natural tendency to hide. And just like our childhood game, the best place to hide is in the dark. We keep the doors and windows to our lives closed in order that we may have an element of secrecy to our inner workings. The least little crack in our exterior can be pierced by light in a way that makes us vulnerable and so we are vigilant in our efforts to keep things in the dark.

Chances are, if you were a part of a youth group in the 90’s you are pretty familiar with the DC Talk song I’m going to mention. While "Jesus Freak" was the favorite of many of my peers, I was attracted to "In the Light". I went from "I wanna be like Mike" as a basketball junkee to "I wanna be in the light" as a follower of Christ. In 1995, when this song was released, I had been trying to figure out this Christianity thing for about 2 ½ years and this song spoke to the inner desire of my heart to be more like Christ. In order to be more like him, I needed light to be shed on my life in a way that revealed everything I had been hiding. The things in the darkness were not like him in the least. Almost 20 years later this song still resonates with me for a couple reasons. First, I still desire to be more like Christ. Second, I still have to deal with darkness.

According to Matt Chandler, pastor of The Village Church in Dallas, to be 99% known is to be unknown. The 1% of our lives that is in darkness, the 1% that is hiding, is what makes all the difference in our lives. I would imagine that many of us are hiding much more than 1% of our lives from the view of others and whatever that percentage is for you, it’s time to drag it into the light. Here’s why:

That 1% or more is keeping you from the realization that you are truly loved. There’s a reason why people hide things from others. It’s the sense that they wouldn’t love me if they knew what I’ve been through. They wouldn’t love me if they knew what I’ve done. They wouldn’t love me if they knew the 1% I'm hiding. And so, people go through life 99% known with the heavy burden of thinking that they wouldn’t be loved if they were 100% known. The options get boiled down to being unknown and loved or known and unloved. The possibility of being fully known and fully loved seems unrealistic but that’s exactly what we see in scripture. 

But now that you know God—or rather are known by God—how is it that you are turning back to those weak and miserable forces? Do you wish to be enslaved by them all over again? –Galatians 4:9

Even when we were living in darkness, in hiding, God knew everything about us. In our own silly and childlike way, we thought we could hide from God. Like Adam and Eve hiding in the bushes, we think that God really doesn’t know where we are. The message of the cross is that God knows us and God loves us. 

But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us.—Romans 5:8

Our sin is not hidden from his sight and yet it did not keep Him from loving us. Paul’s appeal to the Galatian church is that it would not instinctively go back into slavery, into hiding. Their lives had been brought out into the light where they can be free, so why would they want to enter back into a life where they are enslaved to all of the things that go along with living in darkness? I’ll reference another DC Talk song from the same album: What if I Stumble? Each and every time we stumble there is a temptation to return to a life of hiding. It’s awkward to stumble in the daylight. People see us fall and it can be uncomfortable and defeating. The bigger the fall, the bigger the desire is to hide it.

Stepping into the light isn’t easy. Trust me. I’ve spent the good part of 3 years taking baby steps (What About Bob?) in my own life with my 1%. (It’s probably closer to 15%) With each step that I take in the direction of being known, the next step is a bit easier. Being known isn’t as scary as it used to be or as scary as I thought it would be. I am so thankful for the providential relationships, as Andy Stanley would refer to them, in my life. They are the folks that God has placed in my life at the time when I needed them. They were the loving and supportive people who sat through my first awkward baby steps into the light. Who are those people in your life and how can you start to take those steps into the light with them? If you are in the light, stay there. No matter how bad you stumble, trying to hide is unhelpful. In the darkness you will stumble again and again, but in the light you will see more clearly the obstacles in your path so that you can keep in step with the Spirit.

Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit. –Galatians 5:25