Light, Darkness, & the Big Picture

The following is a comment from yesterday's entry from blogger Jon. It was so profound and beautiful, I wanted to bring it right out here onto the main page.

---

When God said "let there be light," the projector switched on, and the movie started playing. We call this show "Creation" or "the Universe." It's a 4-D holo-film playing in the theater of space and time, with an infinitude of characters, and a script of unbelievable complexity.

Instead of suspended disbelief like what we use when we're in a theater so we can take part in the show identifying with the characters and the drama, we've gotten it so backwards, that we can only know our reality as Children of God a few hours at a time, and it's hard for many of us to keep even that when we leave the church parking lot!

So here we are, imagining ourselves as having come from our parents, instead of God (Ps. 100), imagining that we were born in this set, imagining that we will die. These bodies will, but we cannot be harmed. Yet, our bodies feel pain, our minds encounter suffering and misery, and there is no shortage of people who are causing more pain, suffering and misery.

If there is One only, and through the miracle of Creation there are also many wills, there are also two directions, the away-from-God, less loving, dimmer directions, and the towards-God, more loving, brighter direction.

Think in 2-D for a moment. Two characters are actually different areas on the screen, one shines with light, another is dark. The darker one's deeds are, the less of Christ's light there is. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness does not comprehend it or overpower it. The darkness is NOTHING! Only light hits the screen of God's Fiat! (Let there be!)

So there is darkness in this film. And drama. Tragedy. Horror.

If there were no darkness and contrast, the screen would be blazing white, and no story could unfold. If there were no conflict, there would be no story, and no resolution, no redemption, no happy ending. If a roller coaster has only ups but no downs, there is no ride, no scream, no laughter.

God is light, and in such, there is no darkness. There is no story, there is only God. As Paul said, there is no male or female, no American nor Iraqi, no oppressed nor free. There is no time--a day is as a thousand years and vice versa. There is only Now. There is no going or coming, no there or everywhere, but only Here.

So this play of light and dark in Creation is not bad, but... we identify with our characters so completely! We believe this world is the sum of our existence, or we act as if we do even if we say we do not. We do whatever it takes to get pleasure and avoid pain, and in many cases, trample on others to do so. We hurt others willfully, we molest, rape, murder, torture, extort, exploit, insult, and make war.

And so, the play of light and dark becomes the Struggle of Good vs. Evil. "Good" characters react to "bad" characters and often, their own actions have consequences that are equally bad or worse, as the bad guys counter-react. And the beat goes on.

Almost everything considered problem today was once viewed as a solution to something earlier. There is a way out. It's remembering who you really are. The world is God's soundstage. The "you" you thought you were was a character, a constantly changing pattern of light and dark on the screen. (And only the light is real). In waking up to this, the illusion of our character, our birth, race, personal story, feelings, nation, and so forth is blown away. It's dying to self, and being alive to Christ. It's being born of the Spirit. It's "putting off the old man and putting on the new man." It's enlightenment, or fana, or Self-realization.

And then, you find you still have a body, still have a mind and feelings, and you still experience the story and the sets and the conflicts. But you know what you are! And in so knowing, you can act without reacting, without conditioning. You can see that the bad guys are nothing but light, as you are, although there's less of it there. You know that no one, is different from you in kind, only in awareness of truth.

Your heart breaks with compassion for all of those who don't know who they are, who their Father truly is. You can do whatever seems necessary or appropriate. Sometimes that might be with gentle or loving actions. Sometimes it might be acting with force to protect another character. Sometimes it might be by picking up a cross. You act because you love the world and so, as God's child, you go to it, not to condemn it, but to save it. And everything will be driven by one goal only... helping people know who they really are, to be transformed by the saving knowledge of God's light.