A Bible verse about darkness:
“I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.” John 12:46
The older I get, the more I understand about life. Granted, I don’t have any answers about anything, but I do know more than I used to.
One of the biggest lessons that I now understand is that there is no point in life where you no longer deal with problems.
Quite the opposite; as you age, the problems are only magnified. But so is your capacity to deal with them.
When I was young, my “problem” might have been a classroom assignment or a test. That’s nothing compared to the assignments I would face in college.
Even those assignments were simple when compared to entering the workforce at an easy job. But at the time, it was challenging.
Then, I got my real job and my first taste of real work. It was hard. Over time, it has become easier, but there are still challenging days.
I used to think something like this, “Someday I’ll make enough money that I won’t have to struggle like this. I won’t have to worry about how I’m going to pay for vehicle repairs or emergency vet bills. Then I can be happy.”
In doing so, I was a spectator in my own life. I was perpetually residing in the darkness.
The easy part is understanding that these problems don’t go away. The hard part is accepting it.
I’ve always believed that I can accomplish anything that I want if I work hard enough. I should be able to “fix” my problems, regardless of how difficult they are.
Maybe that’s still the case, but I haven’t had much luck with it.
From the above passage, I want to emphasize the ending, “I have come into the world as a light, so that no one who believes in me should stay in darkness.”
Notice, it doesn’t say “avoid” darkness. It implies that we will, at some point, be in the darkness. This is reiterated in John 16:33, “I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.”
The point is that our life will be full of trouble and problems. That doesn’t mean that we have to remain in the darkness.
We just need to seek the light.
It’s easier said than done, but it has provided me some relief. I can accept that these problems will always be here in some fashion, and I might not be able to fix them. That said, they’re usually not as big of a problem as I anticipated.
Every snow storm that we have I freak out. Sometimes the snow isn’t as bad as predicted. When something breaks on my truck, I freak out. I can usually fix it without too much trouble.
I still have financial problems, but those are of my own doing so I can’t complain about it too much (even though it is a monumental cause of stress for me).
Worrying has become a natural reaction for me to any problem, and it’s something that I’m working on. I have gotten better at letting things slide or trying to remain objective.
Most of that comes from verses like this. At the end of the day, there will always be problems. We can choose to either accept it and remain joyful in spite of them, or remain in the darkness. Happiness is a choice.
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Thank you for writing these. We can really relate. Lord, help us walk in Your light, and thanks for being the light of this world.