Adventures in wild places has always been my favorite pastime. Whether it be the exploration of forests, mountains, canyons, deserts, caves, beaches, rivers or any other wild place, laying my eyes on places I’ve never seen is one of the things I like best.
Several years ago, one of my adventuring friends and I decided that we would spend some time exploring something we had little experience with – caves.
Caves are fascinating, but can also be very scary. Of all of the scary things that can be found in a cave, I think the scariest is the darkness. Not the darkness when you’re just a short distance into the cave, but the darkness that lies very deep.
If you’ve never experienced dark like that, there’s really no good way to describe it. My adventure buddy and I once traveled down into a cave for over two hours. I’m not sure how deep in the earth we were, but for two hours every step we took was a step down. Much of the going was through very tight spaces. Many of the tight spaces had to be crawled through. It was cold, wet and there were lots of spiders and even more bats.
When we were finally satisfied with how far we’d gone, we stopped to have some lunch and rest a while. We decided that while we were resting, we’d turn off our headlamps. It was then that I experienced the darkest dark of my life.
It was such an interesting experience. My eyes were wide open and it was no difference whatsoever to having them shut. After a while, the darkness began to disorient me. The realization came to me that if I didn’t have a light, there would be no way to get out of the cave. There would be no way to re-navigate the passageways. That thought, there in the darkness, was a truly terrible thought.
As scary as that darkness was, there is an even greater darkness that we all encounter in the broad daylight. The darkness of which I speak is the darkness that surrounds the hearts and minds of those who don’t know Jesus.
In this sense of darkness, the world is very dark and getting darker. But just as God gave us the sun to illuminate our physical vision, He has given us three lights for our current darkness.
One light he’s given us is His Word. David said of God’s Word in Psalm 119:105, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
As great as the light of God’s Word is, it is not the greatest light, rather, it is the revealer of the greatest light, Jesus. In fact, the greatest purpose of the Bible’s light is to shine upon that greater light of Jesus. Jesus said in John 8:12, “I am the Light of the world; he who follows Me will not walk in the darkness, but will have the Light of life.”
The third light that God has provided is the light of the Holy Spirit that God places inside everyone who belongs to Him. Paul teaches in 1 Corinthians 6:19, Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
The Christian need never to fear the darkness. We are armed with defenses against the darkness. We have the truth of God’s Word to anchor us in a world where we cannot trust what we see or hear from other sources.
We have Jesus and His teaching that gives rest to our souls, so when the world around us is full of fears and anxieties, we can rest secure because Jesus has secured our eternity.
We have the Holy Spirit – the great light of God within us – to give us comfort, guidance, to aid our prayers and to be shared with those who have no light.
Deep in the cave, I never worried about the physical darkness within that place. I didn’t worry because I had a light. But not only did I have a light, I had extra batteries for my light. Not only did I have extra batteries, I also had an extra light and extra batteries for my extra light.
God has not left us in darkness. He has provided lights to guide us. Let us go forth and be lights in this dark world.
Much love!
Wes LeFlore (918) 607-8489 or huskerwes1@gmail.com
