Choices In The Dark

Every morning I shower and get dressed for work downstairs away from the rest of my sleeping family so as not to wake them. My closet for work clothes is without a light so sometimes it's tricky to tell what's what.

That is particularly true of my two belts. I wear a brown belt and a black belt to complement my various outfits that I wear to work. Charcoal, Black, and Grey pants typically go with the black belt. Navy, Khaki, and Green Pants typically go with the brown belt, although I do mix things up on occaion.

Here's the problem. I always pull the wrong belt out of my closet. No matter which one I think is the brown one, it turns out to be the black one and vice versa when I pull it out into the light. This summer, my wife bought me a stick up light to put in there but I won't use it and here's why.

I think there's an important lesson to be learned here - I use this daily exercise to remind myself that choices made in the dark are usually poor ones. In some cases, shining an actual light may not help. Human Relationships are notoriously difficult decisions to make and too often I/we make those decisions rashly, only to wish later on that we would have taken a bit more care with what we had said. Impulse purchases are another example : what seems like a necessity or an incredible bargain today may become tomorrow's latest ignored piece of junk in a closet or on a shelf.

In my case, until you shine the light of Christ on your decisions, you really don't know right from wrong, black from brown.

So therefore, I go on picking the wrong belt every morning if only to get my day off on the right foot to understand that walking in the world without a true light in your life will lead you to many paths you did not intend or even want. Holding your decisions up to the light of Christ will usually "shed light" on the right answer.

God's Blessings to All.