Why We Avoid the Light

Jesus says something here about the human heart that stings a little because it is accurate. Everyone who does wicked things hates the light and does not come to the light, lest his works should be exposed, but whoever does what is true comes to the light. He is describing a reflex we all know, the instinct to pull away from anything that might show what we would rather keep hidden.

A man in the grip of pornography learns to avoid the light in a hundred small ways, deleting the history, changing the subject whenever a brother gets close to the real question. The avoidance feels like self-protection, but it is the very thing that keeps him stuck, because what stays hidden stays sick. Jesus does not shame the impulse so much as expose it, and then he offers the other road, the one where a man who wants what is true starts moving toward the light even though it costs him. That movement is itself a work carried out in God.

If you have been dodging the light, name that honestly to him today, and ask for the courage to take one true step toward being seen.