The light is stronger than the dark

Not long ago I took a trip to visit my oldest brother in California. During that trip, he took me caving. The cave was not very deep, but deep enough that at the largest, flattest cavern, my brother and I paused and turned out our headlamps. I've been in several caves in my lifetime and this is a practice I've always found neat, yet un-nerving as well. In pitch black you can wave your hand in front of your face and even with it inches away, you cannot see it. You are blind. Brad encouraged me to just lay there on my back on the cave floor and just enjoy the absolute solitude. I obeyed him and lay there a few feet from him and tried to enjoy it. No light. No distant car rumbling down the road. No music thumping from a radio. No chatter. No cell phones. No voices. No birds. Nothing. I broke the silence with nervous chatter, disrupting my brother's peace and I anxiously begged to turn my headlamp back on.I was relieved to turn it back on and get on with enjoying the exploring.

In church this Sunday we were asked to share a favorite scripture. I'd like to say that I had one right away. Truth is that I'm not a scripture master. I opened my scriptures with panic, hoping they wouldn't ask me to share my scripture. In the end I did share my scripture because it was a good one for me at this moment in life. My scriptures opened and I came upon 1John 4:4. "Ye are of God, little children, and have overcome them: because greater is he that is in you, than he that is in the world." I shared the story I'd heard from Sheri Dew, of how she was traveling in a thick fog with her friends and their children. Her friend's young son became fascinated by they way the oncoming car's headlights cut through the this fog, reaching them, long before the actual car did. He asked how this was possible. How did the light cut through something that cut out the rest of the world? As the adults tried to come up with the best scientific answer, the boy answered with a gospel truth, "Oh I get it, the light is stronger than the dark!"

As I've struggled with trials as of late feeling the discouragement in life when it's not going as planned, I've felt much like darkness has settled in and is here to stay awhile. I am as uncomfortable with this darkness as I was laying on that cave floor having a headlamp and not being able to turn it on. Ironically, I think this is just a metaphor of what is really happening in my life. I've been struggling with this choking feeling of darkness when I have the light, I just need to use it! In God, there is light. Get on with life, turn on your light and start seeing the world with the light! The light is always stronger than the dark.