Light In The Darkness

"Evil is a word we use to describe the absence of good, just as we use the word darkness to describe the absence of light or death to describe the absence of life.  Both evil and good can only be understood in relation to light and good; they do not have any actual existance.  I am light and I am good.  I am love and there is no darkness in me.  Light and good actually exist.  So, removing yourself from me will plunge you into darkness.  Declaring independence will result in evil because apart from me, you can only draw upon yourself.  That is death because you have seperated yourself from me: Life."
~William Paul Young, The Shack~

One of the biggest insights I came away with after seeing the film The Shack was how well the producers portrayed just how our lives would be affected in the absence of God.  In seperation from Him.  Now, in my opinion we've never actually been seperated from our Lord.  Were that to happen, the consequences may indeed be undesirable.  As Paul Young so brilliantly states, seperation from God would be...death.  One topic of discussion which Dennis and I return to quite often is the fact of our false belief that we are indeed independent.  That we ourselves run our day to day lives to the best of our ability.  If we succeed we are seen as strong.  Yet, if we stand alone and fail, we are branded as a failure.  Where is God in that picture?  Is He not with us with each and every step?  Yet, this world is filled with those who continue to stand alone against the world, but cry out to God when they ultimately fall.  We were never created to stand alone.  To be lone wolves.  However, this is the lie which has been perpetuated from the begining by the enemy.  That lie which satan told Eve that she could indeed "Be like God {Genesis 3:5}."  This was the same lie which satan himself believed as he prepared to stand against Gods kingdom {Isaiah 14: 13}.  We marvel at that audacity of satan even as we ourselves participate in his lie.  As The Shack so brilliantly points out...that seperation from our heavenly Father leads only to death.  For without Him we are nothing.

1In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. 2He was in the beginning with God. 3All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. 4In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. 5And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not acomprehend it.
John 3: 1 - 5 NKJV

I cannot look too far into scripture without being humbled by the fact that it is not me  who has importance, but God.  He is the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last.  All things were made by Him and through Him.  We just happen to be one of His creations.  Not just any creation, but the crown jewel of all which He has created.  Before we were created there was darkness, and without Him there is but darkness as well.  To me, for us to declare that we are the ones in charge of our environment and all which we do ignores the reality of our Lords creation.  Yet there are those who sit in church each Sunday reveling in the reality of our Lords creation while holding fast to the belief that we ourselves run our lives.  I am not naive enough to believe that God has no place in this world which He created.  The fact is, that we are nothing without Him.