Light in the Dark

An interesting phenomenon occurs on the fourth night of just about every Young Life camp. Typically, everything goes wrong. It rains while you're rock climbing, or there's a rash of sprained ankles and sore throats. At Woodleaf one year, with Capernaum, it was the night that we lost a feeding tube and had a seizure. Everything goes wrong. We know and acknowledge that this is the work of the Enemy. But typically, at other camps, this phenomenon coincides with the night redemption is preached. For those of us who work with Young Life, it almost always coincides with the bad news, the sin talk.

The Enemy does not want our kids to hear this bad news because only when they know they need a Savior will they look for Him. That is why this night is key. The Enemy attacks because kids can disregard the good news if they don't know or don't hear the bad news. And his scheming is underway tonight. I've heard more stories of abuse today than I care to tell about. Our rock climbing day was nearly rained out. Kids are growing attitudes. And I'm missing club, recovering from a panic attack. All of these are recognizable signs that the Enemy is fighting against the work of the Kingdom.

This morning, Erik and I were talking about just that, preparing for the madness heading our way on this fourth night of camp. We talked about how kids respond differently and uniquely to the bad news of sin. Some get quiet and pensive. Others get vocal and angry. You never know. But then we got to talking about why that is. Kids don't want to hear the bad news. They don't want to know that they are not perfect.

The struggle can best be summed up by John 3:18-20:

"Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because they have not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but people loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear tha their deeds will be exposed."

It's this Light and Dark struggle that is being fought out tonight. These kids don't know they're in this fight yet, but I'm here battling it out right now as I write these words. The light is shining, no matter the attacks used by the enemy, for there have been friends who have described my current state as full of darkness, that I have no light in me, but Psalm 139 tells us that even the darkness is as light to our Lord and Savior. He will shine brightly in the night, and gain the victory for himself. "For God, who said, 'Let light shine out of the darkness,' made his light shine in our hearts to give us the light of the knowledge of God's glory displayed in the face of Christ" (2 Cor. 4:6).