Through a Glass Darkly (click title for audio)
For now we see through a glass darkly, but then face to face: now I know in part; but then shall I know even as also I am known (1Corinthians 13:12).
Imagine taking an empty beaker and setting it in a ray of sunlight. The beaker will cast a slight shadow, but the ray of light passes through. Now imagine filling the beaker with smoke and you will see a distinct shadow. The smoke inside the beaker blocks enough of the passing light to cast a shadow.
Think of the shadow cast by the smoke-filled beaker as your life. You would like more light in your life so what do you do? Do you ask the sun to brighten up a bit and eliminate the shadow? Or would it be possible to coax the sun into breaking a few of its gravitational laws and move a bit, possibly to a position straight overhead so the shadow would not be evident? Neither of these will work. First, the sun is as bright as it’s ever going to be. Second, the sun will not move for you. Imagine if everyone on the planet had a smoke-filled beaker and they wanted the sun to move to eliminate their shadow. Even if the sun did move directly over your beaker, the shadow may disappear but the cause remains.
When shadows of negativity appear in your life, you may turn to God in prayer asking that the shadows be removed. If you think of God as the sun, you as the beaker, the smoke as your consciousness and the shadow as the negativity in your life you will have an effective understanding of how to approach the problem. You do not ask God to behave differently. God is behaving just fine. You would not try to erase the shadow with external means. You would eliminate the smoke from within the beaker; that is, you would release the internal negativity that is casting the shadow.
You may be approaching your problem by thinking if you could eliminate the shadow first, the smoke will go away. Not so. Close your eyes, relax and know the full light of God is shining now. See yourself letting go of the shadow-casting fear so the light that has never once been absent may shine brightly in your life.