Tip of My Iceberg

photo courtesy of Ellen Tanner on Unsplash

I’m an impatient person.

I can be composed, even patient, with people. But we all have our “stuff” that causes us to be later than expected or unaware of necessary steps we need to take.

However, I’m not at all about waiting for elevators, escalators, or anything that requires a wait time before I’m able to engage it.

Hotel elevators are the worst. Having to wait for the metal box to go up and down and eventually stop to pick me up seems like a waste of time.

I often take the stairs. Up and down.

We had been on a business trip for several days, staying in a hotel on the eighth floor. I acquiesced to John the first night we were there and rode the elevator with him.

Not the next morning.

I waited approximately thirty seconds and told him I was taking the stairs and would meet him on the first floor. I headed to the sign marked “Exit” and started down the stairs.

I made it to the first floor and was stunned to find it locked. I had a room key, but there was no pad to connect with it.

I ran up to the second floor. It, too, was locked.

All I could think of was John saying, “I told you so.”

I had to call him to meet me at the second floor and let me out.

I felt so foolish.

How often do I find myself stuck in a situation of my own making that is uncomfortable and unsustainable? Where I feel trapped by a poor decision or being too spontaneous where I act before I think?

All people have the same tendency–to choose to do wrong if that choice meets our desires and longings.

“The human heart is the most deceitful of all things, and desperately wicked. Who really knows how bad it is?” Jeremiah 17:9

This does not mean that people are all bad. We each have the capacity for making great, positive choices. But our human nature often trips us up with unrealistic desires and demands. Such attitudes create darkness in our hearts, building on selfish yearnings and focusing everything on our cravings.

The problem with darkness is you can’t see.

Martin Luther King, Jr. commented, “Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.”

We can’t cover up darkness. Darkness covers the light we so desperately long for.

Jesus said He was the Light the world longed for, the One who could shine truth and beauty on our lives no matter what our circumstances. The people of His time were overwhelmed by the oppression of the Roman government, but Jesus was adamant about how His light defied all darkness.

“Jesus spoke to the people once more and said, ‘I am the light of the world. If you follow Me, you won’t have to walk in darkness, because you will have the light that leads to life.’” John 8:12

We will continually find ourselves stuck in a darkness not always of our choosing. Darkness that brings despair and disruption.

Jesus brings a light that can’t be blighted by any darkness.

Too often I have to be reminded that I’m not seeing what’s real. I get used to the darkness, and it becomes normal.

Darkness is not our best interests.

Being stuck in a stairwell is a momentary sense of panic.

Finding myself in circumstances that destroy my heart and soul is much worse.

What lights your way?