Lord, have mercy on me a sinner.

     Until we come face to face with how destitute we are, we can't appreciate how fortunate we are by the work of Christ in our place.  It's hard to fathom that as sinners we fall short of the glory of God every day even if we are saved.  We were in such dead space before we met Christ and didn't even know that the grass was greener on the other side.  Instead, we lived in the darkness and our whole lives were permeated with sin.  At least mine was.  I'm pretty sure that no one is perfect.  So, the amount of light we see depends on how much of the darkness we let go of.  If I hold onto areas in my life that are not of God, then the light is unable to go there.  Remember that free will thing?  It's still there in all of our lives.  We choose how much darkness we retain and how much light we let in.  Boy are we mixed up!  Here is an illustration.  I built a greenhouse and decided to cover the top of the greenhouse with plastic.  The plastic wasn't clear but did let light in and my crops flourished.  The wind storms took out the plastic so I acquired clear acrylic panels and installed them. What a difference that makes!  All the light can get in.  I can't wait to see what the new crops will produce. 
     Our lives are like that.  If we allow God to put clear acrylic in place, that which is within us can do nothing but produce more because the darkness is driven out by the light.  All we need to do is realize that the darkness we are holding onto isn't what God wants in our lives.  The story of what happened on the cross includes that when Jesus died the skies grew black as night.  That's not the end of the story though.  The end of the story was the next morning when it was discovered that he was gone.  Angels shown with light, the day was light and Jesus was the light of the world risen from the dead.  He conquered the darkness so that we don't have to live in the darkness.  I'm reminded of an observation I once made while camping.  We had a good camp fire going in the deep woods where only darkness was present.  The light of the fire was observed in two different modes.  The first was from outside the circle of the fire and light.  Anyone outside the circle could clearly see into the light.  The second was those who were inside the light were unable to see into the darkness.  The vision of both were restricted or increased by their position.  When you look away from the light all you see is darkness.  When you look into the light all you see is the light.
     In the forest animals roam looking for food.  They have vision that can see their prey and they are able to take advantage of the darkness to do what they do.  Without this vision they are unable to see into the darkness anymore than we can. The Holy Spirit is that vision and Jesus has illuminated the path we are to be on.  Quite simple when you think about it.  HE is the light of the world.  He outshines the darkness of the world.  It is he who should be shining in our lives for the world to see.  What do we do?  We put a basket over the flame and hide our life and light.  Not what the Christian is to be doing.  It's always your choice.