The Power of Darkness

Monday, February 18, 2008
In all probability my mind is too tired for me to attempt writing this but for some reason I feel compelled to do so; hopefully, it will be beneficial to someone. Of course, there is the possibility that I am doing it for my own well-being and catharsis; if so, please be patient with me (I am old, you know!).
Anyway, last night was quite interesting, to say the least, especially the part when the tornado was passing into River North and in very close proximity to our house. This is the second time this has occurred in the past couple of years, which is more than enough for me. Thankfully, we (Annis and I) escaped untouched, except for a few hours without electrical power, which was no big thing because it gave me an excuse to go to bed around 8:00! It was a bit eerie, I must admit, watching the TV and seeing the hook of the rotation moving in our direction, so much so that Annis insisted that we move into the basement. Of course, about the time we sat down to turn of the TV the power went off and there we sat in pitch darkness, as in the complete absence of light, or so it seemed.
To be honest, I really wasn’t afraid but I was thinking about how dark the darkness was, so much so, that for a moment I almost forgot why we were in the basement. In that darkness, I could picture the churning of the winds above our house, things completely out of our control, roofs being lifted off houses, trees being thrown around like toothpicks, people being covered over with debris—the utter devastation that one sees following most tornados (Thankfully, when the lights came back on, things didn’t look nearly that badly!).
As I told you earlier, we went to bed around 8:00, which was when my thinking changed, and I began thinking about the power of darkness, i.e. the power that Satan has, as he works in his dominion—the world of darkness. Sometimes I think we forget that we have an enemy, the prince of darkness, who does everything he can to destroy us, and always working in darkness. I thought about the many people he has deceived into believing his lies, lies that look so much like the truth, that distinguishing between the two is very difficult. The truth is his lies are often much more appealing than the truth, as they were with Adam & Eve; consequently, we are easily deceived. Sadly, when we are deceived, we do not know it; otherwise, we would no longer be deceived.
From what I have been able to observe, he is a master at enticing us to make foolish choices, choices that on the surface have all the appearances of being the correct ones, but whose consequences reveal that they were anything but the correct choices. I think Israel learned this lesson more than once. On one occasion they got tired of waiting for Moses to return from the mountain, so they decided to make their own God. At the time, it seemed like the correct choice; but trust me on this one, it didn’t take them long to discover the truth. On another occasion, they decided that they wanted meat to eat, instead of manna, and God gave them want they wanted; however, well you know the rest of that story!
Yes, I know that making wise decisions is not always an easy task, especially in light of the fact that none of us has a crystal ball; however, I also know that many of the decision we make are simply foolish choices, choices that no one in his/her right mind would make, choices that can only result in severe consequences. I mean, if you should jump in front of a speeding freight train, would you expect to walk out on the other side singing, “The Chattanooga Choo Choo”? If you should jump out of an airplane, without a parachute, at 30,000 feet would you expect to land on your feet and walk away singing, “Stay Off My Blue Suede Shoes”? I don’t think so!
I can only hope that you will believe this: you have an enemy who has the power to convince you that you can succeed in this life by doing your own thing, instead of submitting to your creator; in fact, he can make “doing your own thing” much more appealing that submitting to God’s will and way for your life. Of course, somewhere down the road, you will have to face that fact that the consequences of your choice give evidence to its foolishness.
And remember this: he loves darkness and he does so because he is evil!