Light and Dark

Giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light: 13 Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom of his dear Son.

Colossians 1:12-13

To my grandchildren, great-grandchildren and all the rest that may follow in thereafter, consider the words of Yeshua who wisely said – “Be careful that the light that is in you is not darkness.”  I think He knew what He was talking about.

Bjorn

I am genetically and therefore naturally inclined toward the Dark.  It is my human nature.  I lean toward it and am drawn to is non-existence much more than to light and things of the light. It has been this way since I can remember as I’ve always related not only to literally and actually dark things – the night over the day, dark rooms over the well-lit, dark themes in art and music, and frankly no matter how hard I try I still, even today, find the Dark far more comfortable and fitting to my person than all the elements of light. This has caused me trouble over the years in terms of feeling accepted and able to engage with so-called normal people in the world surrounding me.  I mention this because I want to emphasize the fact that almost every moment of every day of my life I have naturally wanted, as the Rolling Stones once sang, “to paint it black.”

I suppose there is not too much we can do about the genetic construction of our make-up.  Believe me, I have tried. But because of this I have had to learn to adjust every minute of my life to making constant choices that embrace light and light ways over the will and ways of the Dark.  Looking around, I could intellectually see that I was not like the men and women of the world who loved the light.  These were people who never seemed to want to do anything “wrong,” who were always organized and productive, who did their homework, cared about their car, listened to adult contemporary music while I was tuning into death metal, not caring about what I drove or how it looked and was walking chaos in everyday living.  These were good people who rejoiced over owning a Thomas Kinkaid and who decorated their nice tract homes with bright floral wallpaper and wainscotting – while I was vibing on Jackson Pollack’s posted in empty rooms of cold, hard cement.  Sure, much of this can be assigned to having an artistic temperament, but even the artists I knew in my life had day to day tendencies that were considerably lighter, brighter and more reasonable than mine.  I enjoyed pain.  I loved revenge.  And I was predatory in nature, like a creature of the night, seeing people as things and life as nothing more than ways to feel something, anything in the face of what I saw as a rather empty package of meaninglessness.  Of course, the end result was inner alienation and living a life of solitude in spite of the paradoxical fact that I was socially charming and quite adept at pleasing people from all walks of life.  Put it all together, I was, and am by nature, a narcissistic sociopath and I believed I was destined to a life according to the rules of this make-up as I did not know of any other way to exist.

I mention all of this because I want you, the reader, to know that because of my nature I am somewhat of an expert in Dark forces, Dark things and Dark philosophies.  I understand them, relate to them, and can spot them a mile away.  I would like to suggest that as a Christian I have lost this affinity all-together but that would be a lie.  What I have experienced however, as a Christian, is the absolute alternative to the Dark, which of course would be the Light or God.  And in this I have personally discovered what this Light offers those wanting it, what power it can bring wayward and errant souls, and how His Light equates to real living verses the death that abides in the Dark, its forces and its forms.

Without going into a whole bunch of history (that is found in other places) understand that I have spent most of my adult life searching for something, anything that would liberate me from the chains of Dark that actually held and hold me bound.  Yes, I said hold, present tense, because even as a sold-out believer in the Light that shined into this Dark world, I am still in a body of flesh, and as long as I remain in this natural body my flesh yearns for Dark things and Dark ways, including deep expressions of selfishness like being rude, sarcastic, demeaning, a brute, a liar, a criminal, full of revenge, hatred, misogyny, sexual perversions, adultery, lust, pride, rage, murder and anarchy.  This is who I was before Christ; it is who I am without Him on the throne of my heart.  And I want to make these things clear as we embark on the information contained in this book.

I cannot escape the fact that my tastes in things still orbit around Dark themes and that as a human being I find many aspects of this Dark forces attractive.  But I have learned, frankly equipped myself to know and understand, from where they originate, what moves them and what they ultimately lead to – death.  In fact, that is the call from the Dark – to cease to exist, nothingness, silence, being comfortably numb.  And here’s the really difficult news from one who has been there – the war on Dark forces is unfortunately constant and is won through characteristics found only in labor, effort, and selflessness.

These principles of labor and effort are not referencing sweat and duty but are reflected in diligent seeking for Truth, or humbling oneself before the world and its demands, and in making the relentless, constant choice to put God first in one’s life, and others second.  This is the interesting thing about what the Dark fails to accomplish in its ways and the Light brings to pass – really freedom, liberty which comes by and through selflessness, sacrifice, and insufferable dedication to God and His will.We will see this as a theme, especially in Part II, where we could probably separate true Light from the Absolute Dark based on doing the will of God verses doing the will of self. Both produce completely different outcomes.  Having ardently pursued both approaches, I cannot more readily recommend His will over our own.  Read on – maybe you will come to the same conclusion.