Have you ever experienced a complete and total absence of light?
On a trip to Montana a couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to visit the Lewis & Clark Caverns. As my tour group wound its way through the natural limestone formations, I mentally replaced my guide’s comments about “millions of years” with “God created” and was awestruck by His creativity, ingenuity, and craftsmanship in the depths of the earth, which had only been stumbled upon by man in recent history.
The caverns are a breeding ground for bats, which are notorious for their love of the dark and damp environment and for choosing caves to roost and raise their young. To avoid disturbing the creatures, we were instructed to speak in low tones, which added to the awe-filled ambiance.
At the halfway point of the tour, the guide stopped to tell us the story of Buck Johnson, a man who got lost in the caves in 1907. He was separated from his exploration party, and once his candle was extinguished, he found himself in complete and utter darkness. Buck lost his sense of direction, started having auditory hallucinations, and hurt himself as he stumbled over rocks and stalagmites. When he was finally found five days later, he was out of his mind with fear, paranoia, and despair. Even though he was admitted to a mental institution to address his psychological distress, he was damaged for the rest of his life by his experience in total and utter darkness.
To illustrate what Buck experienced once his candle flickered out, the guide turned off the lights lining the cave walls. He challenged us to hold our hands up and try to gauge how far away they were from our faces. In the 30 seconds that the lights were off, I started to lose my depth perception and sense of time. Had it been 30 seconds or 100? Did I even have hands?! Even though I knew I was safe and that turning off the lights was part of the tour beforehand, that didn’t stop panic from flickering at the corners of my mind. A murmur of relief rippled through the tour group when the guide turned the lights back on. We felt more at peace in the light.
Two different creatures were in the cave the day that Buck Johnson got lost. One was the bat, which God created to exist and thrive in the dark, using echolocation and other abilities without losing its mind. The other was a human, who God specifically created to need sunlight and human contact. When Buck was deprived of those things, he went mad.
I was reminded of this experience during Pastor Chris’ sermon this past Sunday about how love cannot exist in the darkness. Showing love to others requires a life lived in the light of God’s Word and in obedience to His commands. What God calls us to do will never lead us into isolation in the dark. Living in the light “restores our souls and leads us in the paths of righteousness” (Psalm 23:3).
The choice between spiritual light and darkness is just that – a choice. Love and hatred are complete opposites and cannot exist in the same space at the same time. One is of God, and the other is of the devil.
God desires that all people live in the light of His love and show that love to others. Not only is it the right thing to do, but it will also produce the fruit of the Spirit in the heart of the Christian (Gal. 5:22-23).
If we choose to live in the darkness of hatred, it will alienate us from God’s light and slowly drive us mad. We will start to push our community away, choose a direction for our lives based on our feelings, and hurt others and ourselves when we stumble over the consequences of our poor choices. Any choice made outside the guidance of Scripture is like tip-toeing into the darkness of a cave with only a short stub of a weakly lit candle, hoping it works out OK.
“May the mind of Christ, my Savior, live in me from day to day” is a beautiful hymn lyric that captures what it means to live in the light. It is not up to us to muscle our way into the light and love those around us in our own strength. We are to put on the mind of Christ and ask the Holy Spirit to fill us with His strength for the moments we have in front of us. Joy and peace will fill our hearts, regardless of our circumstances, as we choose to live in the light and embody the love of Christ that He showed us first on the cross.
There are many songs about living in the light that have come to my mind as I’ve meditated on this topic this week, so I created a playlist to share! You can listen to it on Spotify or YouTube.
Photos of Lewis & Clark Caverns by Ariana Creach and Jennifer Morton