how shadow works

[ A Full Life in the Emptiest of Places ] "If you get rid of unfair practices, quit blaming victims, quit gossiping about other people's sins, If you are generous with the hungry and start giving yourselves to the down-and-out, Your lives will begin to glow in the darkness, your shadowed lives will be bathed in sunlight. I will always show you where to go. I'll give you a full life in the emptiest of places— firm muscles, strong bones. You'll be like a well-watered garden, a gurgling spring that never runs dry. You'll use the old rubble of past lives to build anew, rebuild the foundations from out of your past. You'll be known as those who can fix anything, restore old ruins, rebuild and renovate, make the community livable again. (Isaiah 58:9-12, The Message)

 

"A shadow is an area where direct light from a light source cannot reach due to obstruction by an object." I have lived in shadow often. I hate it there and yet its familiar so I stay; it's what I know more than anything else. I have seen God as the obstacle I need to get around, get through, get over - to get what I want. With that mentality, God becomes the obstruction casting me into shadow because it's my wants and not Him that have become my light.

 

Sometimes God has to put me into shadow and leave me there for awhile not because He wants to but because I really don't give Him a choice. He would be doing me no favors leaving my prideful selfishness intact. Can an unopened closed vessel be poured into?

 

God loves despite failings. God is faithful despite unfaithfulness. God wants not verbalized written affirmation but moment by moment action showing trust.

 

I get all kinds of broken. When a plan doesn't come together in my timeline, in my way, I get crushed by disappointment. When I don't get what I want, the way I think I should, I get exhausted by discouragement. These kinds of broken aren't spiritual. They are simply the product of a belief system that isn't looking to God as Father, Friend, Light - but as obstacle.

 

God doesn't move but my position in viewing Him changes everything. God doesn't want to be my obstruction, my consolation, or my enemy. God doesn't want me to view Him as a means-to-an-end but as the end which is the only real beginning. The message I heard this Sunday taught about not leaving your old way of life as an option to go back to. It's easier said than done. Change is really hard and impossible without His help. The solution is so simple it's hard: Look to Him who's Light so shadow can disappear.

 

[ From the Shadows to the Substance ] My counsel for you is simple and straightforward: Just go ahead with what you've been given. You received Christ Jesus, the Master; now live him. You're deeply rooted in him. You're well constructed upon him. You know your way around the faith. Now do what you've been taught. School's out; quit studying the subject and start living it! And let your living spill over into thanksgiving. (Colossians 2:6-7, The Message)