Seananigans

What a challenging subject to talk about. What is truth?

"Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

What does this have to do with truth, you ask? Everything, I'm afraid.

Truth is often painful. There are things in people's lives (my life) that can be very painful, shameful, and hard to talk about. So we don't talk about it. We keep it hidden. Why would we want to show others our weakness, hurt, guilt, burden, shame, problems, sorrow? Why would we tell others about the bad stuff we have done, or just did? It is painful. Why would we want to experience pain? We don't, so we avoid it. Hide it. Stay in the darkness. "For fear that [our] deeds will be exposed."
We hate the light - "living truthfully" - because we fear our deeds and thoughts will be exposed. We avoid the truth because... the truth often hurts.

"But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."

I could not say it better than this. Truth is... living in the light. Exposing your flaws, hurts, doubts, questions, shame, etc. to at least one other person. Getting your true self out there. Living in the light.
If you look back at the very first line of the above passage from John, it says "Light has come into the world" in a reference to Jesus Christ. But men loved the darkness. Coming to Jesus means coming into the light. And living in the light means coming to Jesus.

This is a recent revelation to me, and I would love to talk to other people about this. I am just beginning to realize the extent of my brokenness, and all those other things I mentioned above. For me this means confronting some issues in my past, and trying to stay open and honest with all the things currently going on in my life.
I love the analogy of light vs. darkness because it is so easy for me to understand. If you think about being in a completely dark room, you are surrounded and enveloped in darkness. You can not see anything. But if you were to light a candle, or turn on a light, it would reveal what was once dark. In the same way that this occurs in the physical world, it is played out in our spiritual lives. Light, or Jesus, exposes those dark areas in our lives. We have darkness, He is the light. And if we want to walk in the Light we have to come to him.

Are you living in the light?