Sometimes darkness clings

If you’ve followed Christ for any amount of time, you have probably encountered some aspects of spiritual warfare. As children of God, we have an enemy who hates us and wants to cause us pain, who wants to make us walk away from the plans God has for our lives. And there are times when we are more open and vulnerable to attack, but in those times God shows His strength through us, kind of like what I blogged about yesterday.

And while it is quite exciting to think that we have access to that kind of strength, we need to remember beyond anything else that we can’t beat the darkness by ourselves.

Sunset through the apricot trees – Safe Haven Farm, Haven, KS

Today’s verse is Romans 13:12.

The night is almost gone; the day of salvation will soon be here. So remove your dark deeds like dirty clothes, and put on the shining armor of right living.

This is one of my favorite verses in Scripture. It doesn’t sound as dashing in the New Living Translation as it does in the New King James, honestly; the New King James makes it sound epic … like something out of Lord of the Rings. But this is probably more practical in actually understanding what Paul is talking about.

But even this translation is full of metaphor. Removing our dark deeds like dirty clothes? Putting on an armor? Sorry. I don’t think I have one of those lying around. If I did, I think I’d know about it, no matter how dirty my house might be.

So what on Earth is Paul saying? For the most practical explanation, though, I think the Message says it clearest:

Romans 13:11-14 (The Message)

But make sure that you don’t get so absorbed and exhausted in taking care of all your day-by-day obligations that you lose track of the time and doze off, oblivious to God. The night is about over, dawn is about to break. Be up and awake to what God is doing! God is putting the finishing touches on the salvation work he began when we first believed. We can’t afford to waste a minute, must not squander these precious daylight hours in frivolity and indulgence, in sleeping around and dissipation, in bickering and grabbing everything in sight. Get out of bed and get dressed! Don’t loiter and linger, waiting until the very last minute. Dress yourselves in Christ, and be up and about!

Here’s the deal, Christians. We don’t have a lot of time left. God has been patient for a very long time and has extended chance after chance for the world to turn to Him. Even America. We have had countless chances to give up our futile pursuits of personal pleasure and self-entitlement. God’s patience will wear out soon.

But remember, Romans is written to Christians. Paul is talking to believers in this passage. Christians, we need to wake up. We need to pay attention to what God is doing around us. And we need to get rid of the darkness in our lives, no matter what form it takes. If it’s negativity, get rid of it. If it’s complaining or griping, get rid of it. If it’s impure thinking (the full range from sex to gossip), get rid of it.

Like every other morning, I’m talking to myself. I struggle when I’m exhausted. I can get easily discouraged by the darkness I see all around me, by people who should know better, by people who don’t know better, and by people who don’t care either way. And sometimes it feels like the darkness of our world is like a sticky black tar that clings to us, and nothing we do can get it to release us.

That’s where the metaphor comes in. I don’t have an armor lying around my house, but God has given me a metaphorical armor when He sent His Holy Spirit to live in me. When the darkness in this world gets to be too much, remember that we’re not fighting this battle alone. Stop focusing on the ground you’re losing and focus on the truth – God’s already won and you don’t have to give in to the darkness. If you’re a Christian, you’re already wearing an armor of light; you just may not be using it.

So … use it.

We don’t have any light in us without Christ. So how can we push the darkness back without Him? We can’t. So why are we trying? Why are we throwing Bible verses at people when our lives don’t match what Scripture says? Why are we doing good works when our hearts aren’t motivated by our faith?  Why are we trying to make a difference in the world on our own? It doesn’t work.

Stop trying to fight the darkness in your own strength. You will lose. And when you accept that, you can accept help. That’s how you use your armor of light. You ask God for help.

God gives us strength, not just to endure, not just to keep going, but to live and to live right. We don’t have to be negative. We don’t have to be discouraged. We don’t have to complain or gripe. We don’t have to subsist on impure thoughts and gossip and whatever else slows us down. God’s Spirit — our Armor — gives us the strength and the power to stand up against all that.

When the darkness clings to you, remember you have an armor of light. So start using it. And pay attention. Stop wasting time chasing things that don’t matter; stop wasting time focusing on what you don’t have or what you don’t know or what you can’t control. Plug in. Get busy. There’s lots to do and not much time left to do it, and it doesn’t matter where you are because the workers are few and there’s a lot of field to harvest.

So if you don’t have an armor, get one. And if you’ve got one, start using it before it’s too late.

What to do when your air conditioner gives up the ghost

Life is about making choices. We choose what to eat for breakfast. We choose what clothes we wear. We choose–to a certain extent–what kind of job we work. We choose what music to listen to, what kind of car to drive, what kind of house to live in. Life is about making choices and dealing with the consequences of those choices, whether they be positive or negative.

For example, I had a choice of where to sleep in my house last night. I got home around Midnight, and generally when I get home that late, I sleep on the first level because the house air conditioner cools the place down very well. The second level of my 100-year-old farmhouse has window a/c units that work well but you have to give them a headstart.

It was 90 degrees in the house when I got home at Midnight. So I turned on my air conditioning, took a shower, and then went to bed. I woke up at 2 a.m. covered in sweat and realized . . . the house air conditioner wasn’t working. It was 90 degrees on the first floor. It was 90 degrees in my basement. And it was 94 degrees in my bedroom on the second floor. I’m not sure why the house air conditioner isn’t working, but it would figure that it would break just before I leave the country on Saturday. =) It’s probably all these weeks of 100+ temperatures. It finally just gave up the ghost.

I tried sleeping in the basement, but it was just as hot and I didn’t have a fan going. So I chose to go up to the second floor, turn on my room a/c unit and just wait for it to cool down. I actually got a pretty good night’s sleep (it is currently 83 in my bedroom, where I am parked in front of the a/c unit composing this blog this morning).

I could have chosen to remain on the first floor. I acclimate fairly quickly and I probably could have gotten to sleep, but I would have been a terrible sweaty mess for work today. So I chose to be incredibly uncomfortable for about half an hour in my room while it was cooling down and managed to get a good night’s sleep without drenching myself in sweat.

As I was drifting off to sleep last night, I thought about this too. I had a choice even after I had made my choice. I could have laid in my hot bed in my hot room listening to the a/c unit chugging away doing its darnedest to cool this place down and could have been upset. I could have felt sorry for myself and I could have focused on how unfair it is to lose my air conditioner in the middle of the summer and on how inconvenient it was for me to have to wander around my house like someone who doesn’t know where they’re going to sleep. But I decided that feeling that way was a waste of time. I was in my room (even though it was hot), in my comfortable bed (even though it was hot), and I had an air conditioner. And it was working. Even if it were a tad inconvenient, I had an option that involved sleeping in an air conditioned room. So I chose to be thankful instead.

The verse today is also about making a choice.

Psalm 119:30

³⁰ I have chosen to be faithful;
I have determined to live by your regulations.

Faith is a choice. Trusting Christ to save you from your sins is a one-time decision, but trusting that God knows what He’s doing with your life even when none of it makes sense is a choice I have to make almost every hour of every day.

We can either choose to trust that God is good and that He knows what He’s doing and that He always keeps His promises. Or we can choose to believe that He isn’t and He doesn’t and try to do our own thing. There’s no inbetween choice. Those are the only options. And the consequences from that choice determine what kind of a life you’re going to lead.

If you do your own thing and try to figure life out on your own, you’ll never have peace and life will never make sense. Because life is too big for us to understand. The big picture of our existence is too broad and too detailed and too complex for us to grasp. Our lives are all tiny pieces of a giant mosaic that fit together beautifully, but we are too small to see the whole picture.

But God can see everything. He can see how my life fits into the grand scheme of His plan. And instead of me flailing and floundering trying to understand life on my terms, I choose to just trust Him.

And by choosing to remain faithful to Him, by choosing to live by the Bible, by choosing to live like Christ, I will have a life that God can bless. Abundantly.

And I can speak from experience because it’s true. God has given me everything I need and just about everything I’ve ever wanted. I’ve never lacked for anything, even during the years when I didn’t know how I was going to afford food. Even during the time when I could barely make it paycheck to paycheck, God was faithful me. And now at this point in my life, I couldn’t ask for anything more. Although, a functioning air conditioner for the whole house would be phenomenal . . . . but until we get it fixed, maybe I can start a sauna . . . . It’s all good. Because I have chosen to trust God even in circumstances that seem unfair.

And besides, I’m leaving for Guatemala on Saturday so I’ll just consider this training. I have already gotten used to 106 and 110 degree temperatures outside. Now I can get used to the same temperatures inside.

Make the choice to trust God. Choose to live a life He can bless. Choose to believe He knows what He’s doing. And that way, even though life may not be happy, you can still be peachy.