Dark Side

I so appreciated Farrell's post yesterday - I can definitely relate to the feeling of not wanting to expose my inadequacies, failings, and little bits of faith in front of other people. AND, it actually relates perfectly to what I wanted to talk about today (apologies ahead of time to those who don't like the bible/pop song combo, but I think it's really fun to find God in these sorts of things)! 

I don't know about the rest of you, but I love me some Kelly. Kelly Clarkson is my girl. AND she has a new song - Dark Side. You can take a listen here! One of the things I really like about this song is that it sheds light on what I think is a basic human desire: to know that we will be loved despite our flaws and sins. 

All of us have little things about ourselves that perhaps are not the most flattering that we don't like to publicize to the world. It can be big things, like killing someone or robbing a bank, or smaller things, like gossiping about a coworker or inwardly judging a friend. To quote Kelly, "Everybody's got a dark side" (or Romans 3:23 "For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God"). The big question we all have is this: What does this mean for my relationship with other people and with God? 

I'm not going to speak much on what this means for our relationship with other people other than this - ultimately people are sinful and unforgiving, and to answer Kelly's question: There's no guarantee that they're going to love you or your dark side. I'm not saying this to be pessimistic but to be truthful - people are sinful and do not have the Lord's capacity to love or to forgive in themselves alone (take a look at Job's wife and friends if you need an example of the lack of constancy in human nature!). 

One of the things that is the most amazing (and the scariest!) about our relationship with the Lord is that He sees us completely - dark side and all, all the time. There's no sweeping those sins under the rug with Him. I really like how Psalm 139 expresses these feelings:

Where shall I go from your Spirit?

Or where shall I flee from your presence?

If I ascend to heaven, you are there!

If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!

If I take the wings of the morning

and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,

even there your hand shall lead me,

and your right hand shall hold me.

If I say, “Surely the darkness shall cover me,

and the light about me be night,”

even the darkness is not dark to you;

the night is bright as the day,

for darkness is as light with you.

~Psalm 139: 7-12

God sees our dark side, sticks with us, and sheds complete light onto all of the areas in our lives that are sinful. As scary as God seeing our dark side is, it is crucially important because it gives Him a forum to demonstrate His constancy toward us and for Him to transform our darkness into His light through the sacrifice of His son. Full acknowledgement of our sin only magnifies the Lord and His glory: 

For you formed my inward parts;

you knitted me together in my mother's womb.

I praise you, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made. 

Wonderful are your works;

my soul knows it very well.

My frame was not hidden from you,

when I was being made in secret,

intricately woven in the depths of the earth.

Your eyes saw my unformed substance;

in your book were written, every one of them,

the days that were formed for me,

when as yet there was none of them.

~Psalm 139:13-16

By acknowledging the full extent of our sins and our need for Christ, we are better able to understand our need for a savior and to accept our identify in Christ. Being upfront about our sins to the Lord brings us security in our identity as the Lord's creation as well as in the Lord's provision for us. That's pretty awesome that the Lord could take something that initially causes us so much insecurity and use it to bring us into deeper relationship with Him! 

My challenge for us today is to think about something in our lives that we would classify as on the "dark side" and to openly surrender it to the Lord. How does the Lord show you provision and demonstrate His glory in covering that sin in your life? How does His forgiveness bring you into deeper relationship with Him?