July 2021 - LPNI

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July 2021

LPNI Devotion

Walking in the Light

Often, due to the busyness of the day, I do my daily walk in the evening … sometimes when it’s already quite dark. There are added challenges walking at night, the most obvious one being that it’s more difficult to see.

I walk around the streets of my local suburb and usually follow the same route, and generally speaking, the street-lighting is pretty good. Occasionally though, I turn onto a side street I don’t know so well or at all, where the lighting isn’t so good and where it’s a little harder to see where I’m walking. I do this because I quite like the idea of walking somewhere a bit ‘off the beaten track’, so to speak!

Sometimes, the further I get into the side street, the darker it gets, the slower I walk, the more things I nearly bump into. I increasingly find myself looking for better lighting. The better lighting might be on the other side of the street or even back some distance on the main route.

The walk of life can be a bit like a night-time walk. The circumstances of life – health, finances, relationships, job security, temptations, decisions made, decisions regretted, doubts, fears, failings – all these sometimes take us into places where there doesn’t seem to be much, if any light. Our progress through life is slowed down. We stumble and sometimes fall, unsure about the way ahead.

Just after the beginnings of God’s perfect creation, humanity took a turn down a side street where there was no light at all. Our parents, Adam and Eve, walked into the darkness of sin, and ever since then, all humanity has been stepping in and out of the darkness and in and out of the light.

The psalm-writer knew how easy it is to be drawn ‘off the beaten track’, and into the darkness. He knew the challenges of living and walking in the light, and so he wrote these words: Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path (Psalm 199:105, NRSV).

God knows that we’re going to take a few side streets in our lifetime walk. He knows we’ll take wrong turns and head into the darkness from time to time. He knows that circumstances will sometimes draw us away from the light.

When I took a side street during my evening walk, I still had a sense of lights in the distance that were inviting me back into their embrace and protection. Just as I was aware of the light still being there, even though I’d walked deeper into the darkness, so too, God makes sure his light is always present despite the darkness we may find ourselves in. The Holy Spirit assures us that God is with us, even when we find ourselves in dark places.

The very best lamp for our feet and light for our path, is the Word-become-flesh who is the Light of the World: Jesus. Jesus stands ready to draw us back from whatever darkness we’re walking through and into the embrace of his light and love and grace, and so we say, ‘You, Lord, are my lamp; [you] turn my darkness into light.’ (2 Samuel 22:29, NIV)

Lord, your Word is a lamp to our feet. Show us the way in the darkness. Help us to trust in you, knowing you will lead us through the darkness and into your light. Lead us, Lord, and show us your way. Amen.

Rev Mark Whitfield, BTh, MSM

Bishop of the Lutheran Church of New Zealand

Wellington, New Zealand bishop@lutheran.org.nz