Can be blinding. Disorienting. Even a little painful as you squint and shield your eyes. Anyone who has ever walked out of a movie theater into the summer sun knows what I mean.
So it is with walking out into the light of God. It can be temporarily blinding. And it’s usually uncomfortable for a deeper reason: You can now be seen.
Having spent most of your life in darkness, being seen feels vulnerable. You are exposed. You face the very real risk of being seen for who you truly are. You fear being unloved because you have done things that make you less lovable. Or perhaps entirely unlovable.
What will someone think if they see all those things I did in the dark? Who will love me then?
The thing is, to God even darkness is not dark. Nothing is hidden. There is nothing that you can bring out into the light that he did not already see when you thought it was safely hidden in the shadows. At first this sounds like bad news—with a rush the shame, guilt, and anxiety; with the fear of anger punishment, and rejection. All that can be crippling, keeping you frozen in the darkness.
But that bad news, you soon realize, is actually good news. Perhaps the very best news.
Walking out into the light, living the rest of your life out in the light, doesn’t mean living perfectly, it means living honestly. As your true self. Nothing to hide. No masks or charades or Sunday best to put on. No false self whose appearance must be painstakingly maintained.
In the darkness you were already seen, you just weren’t aware of it. You were already loved, but couldn’t feel it. You couldn’t reciprocate. But in the blinding warmth of God’s daylight you can see and be seen. You can love and be loved
