It was
my mother’s ambition to give my two brothers and I as many opportunities to see
the world as she possibly could. Though
we were dirt poor, mom saved every year so we could go on vacation in the
summer. One of these summer excursions
led us into Mammoth Cave of western Kentucky.
As a small child I was amazed that a hole in the ground could stretch so
far, nearly 400 miles. I fantasized
about being the one to explore parts of the cave where no man had yet been.
This
summer I provided my eight year old son, Kameron, with the Mammoth Cave
experience. He trembled with excitement
as he took each of 300 steps downward into the cave. He enjoyed the coolness of the cave as it
held its temperature steady at 54 degrees.
He loved the stalagmites and the stalactites. “A stalactite holds tight to the ceiling and
a stalagmite stands mighty on the ground,” his mother taught him to distinguish
between the two.
Half-way
through the tour our guide gave us opportunities to ask questions. My son immediately raised his hand as if he
were sitting in Ms. Merritt’s second grade class room. I quickly pulled his arm down, fearful that
he was going to ask where the nearest bathroom might be. I asked him, “What were you going to
ask?” He replied, “Oh, I was just going
to ask him to turn out the lights.” A few minutes later Kam got his wish. They turned out all the lights for only a
brief moment. It was Kam’s favorite part
of the adventure.
The
darkness of a cave is like no other darkness you have ever experienced. It is a total blackness that can generate
panic in your breast. It is a darkness
that seems to have weight, an oppressive darkness. Something you wouldn’t want to experience
alone. This kind of utter darkness, the
kind that prevents you from seeing your hand in front of your face, can be very
disorienting.
In
1914, British explorer Ernest Shackleton set out to explore Antarctica with a
crew of adventurous men. Shackleton’s
plan was to land his ship, the Endurance, and walk across the South Pole. His mission had to be aborted because the Endurance
was unable to endure the polar ice.
Shackleton’s crew was stranded for months. Later, the survivors were asked to reveal the
most horrendous difficulty they experienced in Antarctica. They answered that it was not
starvation. It was not the bitter cold
or the pain of frost bite. The most
horrible difficulty they faced was the darkness. The sun doesn’t rise from mid-May to late
June at the South Pole making total darkness an unwelcome companion.
This
deep darkness causes one to lose their sense of direction. You can’t see where you are going nor can you
see where you have been. It removes the
natural time piece that helps us to measure our days. It will steal away one’s rhythm of life. It can bring about depression and loneliness
and cause one to lose their sense of who they are. It has been known to cause some men to go
mad.
The sun
is the source of all biological life.
Without its rays of light we would all perish. The Bible often compares God to the sun. “For the Lord God is a sun…” (Psalm
84:11) Just as the sun is the source of
all biological life, God is the source of all spiritual life. As long as the earth stays in its orbit
around the sun there will be life. As
long as our lives orbit around God we will have spiritual life. He dispels the darkness that seeks to invade
our workspace, our marriages, our families, our finances. When God is centered in our lives we
experience order and understanding. When
God is no longer the center of our lives we get disoriented in the darkness
that pervades. Order is replaced by
chaos and peace is replaced by turmoil.
We
practice idolatry when we try to replace God as the true source of light in our
lives. We may feel a temporary satisfaction even though we ignore God in our
pursuit of a career, or in our thirst for acceptance and popularity. Forbidden love and unbridled lust will
certainly bring a temporary satisfaction but eventually we will discover that
those things are not big enough to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts.
Spiritual
darkness can cause us to lose a proper perspective of who we are. You can’t see yourself when the light is turned
off. You find yourself doing things you
never dreamed you would do when you dwell in the dark. The darkness provides a false sense of
security. Under the cover of darkness
you tend to believe that no one sees and no one knows and no one cares. Loneliness becomes a companion to darkness as
you become more and more isolated.
Prolonged isolation will lead to depression and finally to
disintegration.
A
cave-like, polar darkness descended upon Israel the day Christ died. But the darkness was finally lifted and
Christ was resurrected. His resurrection
demonstrates to us his power to save. He
is the Light who chases away spiritual darkness in the souls of men. He brings order out of chaos, he brings peace
out of turmoil, he brings satisfaction out of frustration, clear direction out
of disorientation, love out of hatred and hope out of despair.
The
hope of every Christian is rooted in His resurrection. His resurrection rends the veil in two so we
may enter the holy of holies. His
resurrection brings assurance to the Christian that death is only temporary and
eternal life awaits those who call upon the name of the Lord. His resurrection
clears a path for us to find our way to heaven where we will no longer need the
light of the sun. Instead, we will bask
eternally in the light of his glory.
Kevin Probst - Teaches New Testament, Apologetics and Epistles at Lafayette Christian School in LaGrange, Georgia.
