Day 3117 of the 7 day Bible verse challenge.

John 3:19 NIV

A sad thing has befallen an already fallen world: Mankind has learned to let past indiscretions define our present preferences, and even to sadly hinder our future's hope.

I'll be the very first to admit plainly that I've simply not gotten much if anything right in my life. This fact is undeniable in regard to both the way I was before I finally got fed up and sought to find Christ as well as now that I'm trying daily to seek Him in deeper measure. Indeed, the entirety of my existence has been most egregious.

And as a guy who knows what it's like to be but a reflection of a fallen world amongst billions of others so too the same, I know that that fact isn't set solely upon my heart. No, it's a truth for all of us as all of us have equally lived without care or consideration or contemplation of the condemnation made permanent by the promise of eternal damnation reserved for all who dare choose to refuse the chance to lose the meaningless way of life chosen by the masses.

All of us know well the perceived benefits of hiding. We grew up playing hide-and-seek for crying out loud. We know the score and the best ways in which to win. We know that tis often better to remain unseen as we also know that should someone see they may well see the things we don't want seen. Because again, we've all a great big list of things we now know we shouldn't have said or done or thought or tried or taken part in.

Yes, we all know the many times we chose the easy way, the popular way, the way we're all pressured into following so as to appease those who we've sadly been conditioned to think we're here to please. Indeed, the world wants us to do as we're told, and well, having only recently realized we can choose otherwise means that all the years before accepting that knowledge led us along the many wrong paths which define the many mistakes we now wish we could hide.

Thus we scramble into the darkness because our whole lives have proven that it's just harder to see where the light won't go.

Out of sight, out of mind, right? Having been given this opportunity to learn from the hard lessons stubbornly chosen all across our misspent pasts has left us well aware of the many things we've gotten all sorts of wrong, twisted around, entirely upside down, backwards and sideways and stupefying overcomplicated and sadly somehow still under-considered. Funny to take a few steps down that path with eyes opened above hearts willing to consider what other wrongs might be realized.

What if one of the things that we've gotten backwards all this time is that whole mindset which teaches us that that which is out of sight is more simply put out of mind as well? What if instead one actually has to be out of mind in order to actually believe that just because something isn't seen means it doesn't exist? If a tree falls in the forest with no one to hear it, does it make a sound?

If a heart falls into sin while nobody's looking, does it leave a mark? We know it does as we’ve the scars to prove it.

But sadly we've come up with a great many quirky little phrases and figures of speech that we pull out at nauseum to sort of dilute and defuse the severity of the foolish mistakes we continue to make despite knowing better, or at least pretending to. But all of them, all of our little excuses and exceptions and expectations of being able to sweep things out of sight only testify that we're doing that which we don't want ourselves seen as having done.

We’re embarrassed, ashamed, filled with guilt and overrun with regret which begs asking: Is it not easier to just stop doing the things we find enough shame in having done that we always feel the need to hide them?

Alas, being a people of such highly habitual nature has left us more interested in continuously doing as we've always done rather than making the changes which we know would stand as indisputable evidence that we knew all along that we were wrong. Can't have that. Can't give the world a reason to think we're not perfect. No, too much time and effort's been given unto these fairy tales in which we're the heroes, the knights, the princes and never the paupers.

No, we cannot be wrong despite endless evidence showing we are. But again, if they can't see it then we don't have to worry about whether or not they'd believe it. Hide. Run. Pretend. Put on a show that's never sold out before under the assumption that anyone anywhere actually honestly believes anyone else to be perfect.

Friends, fact is we're only fooling ourselves.

That's the thing about truth, about reality, about the inevitability of eternity. We cannot outrun it, hide from it, disprove it or possibly deny it. It is just there, ever unchanging, forever unmoving, permanently unwilling to entertain our attempts to somehow undermine it so we can stop wrestling with the realization that we're only undermining ourselves.

See, I love how this verse puts it, "This is the verdict." This is the resolution to the confusion. This is the outcome, the decision, the decree, the edict, the indictment, the conclusion, the conviction, the grand finale of the matter. This is the verdict, the light has come. The truth is here. The promise fulfilled, and well, that means drastically different things depending upon whether one is faithful or faithless.

And that's simply a really big problem for all of us as all of us have proven faithless. Pointless. Meaningless. A people found utterly lacking in morality, honesty, purpose or praise. All of us have fallen terrifyingly short of the glory of God, which is simply unacceptable as He took the time to create that glory in us when He made us in His image.

He made us to be His, but instead we hid. That's the tradition that's been passed down from generation to generation longer than any other. An idea planted in an ear led to a bite of fruit taken from a tree which caused to be eyes opened and innocence lost. Adam and Eve hid when God came calling, and well, ain't we proof that that proverbial apple doesn't fall far after all?

We've spent our whole lives hiding, ashamed of what we've done. We've walked this world with eyes open so wide that our hearts became frozen inside. We learned to walk only on the wrong side of right, to always steer clear of the light as despite doing only what we've been told, we just know inside that it's never once been right. No, wrong is pretty much the only word to describe all we've done and where we've been and who we've become.

It's all just wrong.

And we know it. Can't help but know it. God made sure we'd know it, because ironically we asked for it. You see, that fruit was plucked from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Before that bite, we were doing alright. We were okay. We were thriving in this existence built into a Garden so perfect need wasn't something we needed to think about as we had none. Had no need.

But look at us now, all we know of life is to think we need more and more and more, and this most glaringly grievous kind of gluttony has proven to truly know no bounds. And so down into the depths we dive seeking a place to hide the decay we've urged inside. Sin has become our friend, and as he's never let us down nor do we wish to let him go.

And so instead deeper we go into this hunt for a spot where we can just be free to be what we've become without that pesky light reminding us that we're hiding. Yes, that a shadow exist demands a light shining somewhere above or beyond the barricades we've built. And if there's a light, well, guess that's just one more piece of proof that we really are as dark as we've had to pretend not to be.

This is the verdict, we are wrong. We are gone. We are so lost along this path mistakenly taken that we know we don't deserve the chance to turn back to look for the senses we lost doing only what we've always known was senseless. That's why the world hates the light, it proves instantly and effortlessly just how dumb we really are. And that's just a hard pill to swallow for a people so prideful they prefer the shallow.

But, there is good news in light of all our badness. That is that we've been given the gift of forgiveness. We've been offered the key that unlocks the reset button we know will wipe away all we've piled up. We've heard tell of this tale of this Man who came to this earth and died to prove that even death wasn't the end. He apparently chose the tomb, the deepest kind of darkness of which we all despair, all so we'd not have to live in fear anymore.

That’s right, we don't have to be afraid of being seen as imperfect as this Savior who overcame the grave and therefore the darkness within us did so only because He knew of the darkness within us. He's seen every wrong turn, felt every poor choice, witnessed every instant of this downfall. But rather than doing what we deserve, He himself came down in order to lift us up through His own being lifted up in the place we should have been.

Yes, we should have been the ones humiliated. We should have been the ones ridiculed. We should have been the ones mocked and flogged and treated like criminals, because that's indeed what we've been. But His love saw fit to redeem rather than condemn. He came to forgive instead of just hitting us with an ‘I told you so’. He walked among us so that we could see that there was something different about how He lived, that maybe it was how we could have and should have all this time.

We don't have to prefer the dark anymore. Don't have to hide. Don't have to run. Don't have to be ashamed of where we've been because through Him we won't stay there for long. No, He changes everything for everyone who is willing to change anything. He sets free the captives who've foolishly locked themselves inside themselves thinking happiness and freedom could be found within.

Yes, He knows who we've been and all the wrongs we've done which have led us down so low. But the cross proves that all our hiding is pointless, in fact, proves our hiding is needless. If He already knows and already promises to forgive, well then what are doing? Why keep hiding. Why keep hold of the shame? Why continue to wrestle with who we've been wanting so badly to change when change is exactly what He offers?

The light has come, the truth is out, our deeds always laid bare before His eyes. Fact is that we've never hidden a thing because that's not part of our ability. He's not given us the power to keep things from Him. He knows it all. And if He knows it all and we know it all and all of it was paid off by what He did on that cross, then again, what are we doing?

Friends, a verdict doesn't change. His Word won't be overturned. His truth is so eternally resolved that all of humanity's efforts over the past centuries to disprove or deny all He's said did nothing. The Bible is still the top selling book of all time. There's no putting this rabbit back into the hat. It's out. It's in the open. It's running free as it was always meant to be.

Guess it boils down to whether we keep trying to do what nobody else has ever managed to do or if we simply humble ourselves to the chance that few have found reason to accept. We can go ahead wearing ourselves out trying to keep running into a deeper version of darkness thinking that the hiding will be better there. Or we can quit while we're behind, admit we already lost, and in doing so somehow win in the end.

Choice is ours, and it's an easy one at that. But when tossing it all about, as we do love to try and find loopholes and any bit of glory we can get, just know that He has the final say and He's already said it. Sin is death, but the Son brings life. My point is that we're going to lose one way or another. We can either lose our lives trying to hide them in the superficial safety we tragically believe exists in the shadows.

Or we can step out of our prisons and realize that the stone He rolled away was done for us. He did it all for us. All that’s left for us is to decide what we do in response? Live on the run or run to the Son? Both paths ends at the same place, just with entirely different outcomes.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold