What Cave Diving Taught Me About Jesus | Daily Scripture Podcast | Crossroads Daily

Welcome back! My name is Caleb. I'm Mish. I'm Sierra. I'm Alex. And this week we're gonna look at a couple passages that talk about light actually all of them tied together on that one theme and we're starting today in John chapter 8 Jesus makes a really big statement, I am the light of the world. Before we get any deeper than that I want to ask you what do you think that means? What is Jesus saying about God or about himself actually? This is a total guess. I would imagine in a time before electricity existed I know there were still candlelights and ways to illuminate but like the idea of total darkness was more present and the fact that like someone can say I can actually show it like when there is a light and in John 8 I think it does say like you'll be able to see like if you follow me you will have sight to see what's in front of you. So the fact that Jesus is saying I am the light of the world when you follow me I think he's saying you will always see the way. You will always see the path in front of you and where you're supposed to go. Have you guys ever been in total darkness before? Yeah. Yes. Yeah I went to with some friends the Red River Gorge in Kentucky. Yeah. And they have these caves. Have you done that before? I'm not but I really want to. So there are these caves I don't even remember what they were maybe like some mining caves or something that are filled with water and you can do these boat tours and you have to wear headlamps and they're really cold so we went in the summertime but you wore jackets because they're really cold and you go in boats and you get to a point in the cave where there is actual no natural light so there's no sunlight whatsoever and they have you turn off all your headlights so that you can experience true darkness and all I remember feeling in that moment was I kept taking my hands and going like this like you cannot see. There is nothing. Yeah. And it was the most bizarre experience you're all of your other senses almost heightened so you can I noticed things that I could hear things that I could smell or everything was just heightened but I also remember the guide talking about how powerful light is and he said even if there was the smallest of someone's phone lit up in their pocket it would kind of ruin the experience because of how powerful light is and I

I just think of how powerful light is in this context of even in complete and total darkness the smallest smallest source of light can break through what can feel so overwhelming and so scary and I don't know I think that is a really good representation of Jesus and God like this he's so powerful the smallest little piece of him can illuminate and change an entire space yeah absolutely yeah that's good darkness can't overcome the light even the smallest right we're gonna get to that later yeah what does it say the absent darkness is the absence of light right not it's not the right it's not like the opposite of light it is just the absence yeah amazing I think about the fear that I had as a kid like as soon as I would turn off the lights downstairs coming from the kitchen up until like two years ago I would still like yeah so light so maybe just to summarize all those things light helps us find our way because darkness is like super did super disorienting yeah light can dispel fear right light I think about the Sun light causes things to grow it allows us to find ourself in the world right we're just lost in darkness we have no vantage point for like where to go or what to do yeah Jesus calls himself the light of the world he's saying something about himself which we just talked about now I want to open it up what is what does this passage say about you or does it say about humanity as a whole although I would love it to focus on you for example I very easily will lose my way like not just on Google Maps although I still need those and I've lived here for like 10 years I still need Google Maps to get places but like I will absolutely walk the wrong direction or focus on the wrong things choose projects over people measure myself by my success like things that don't matter in the long run yeah but I need the light of Christ to help me yes go the right direction I think that's it that's like what it says about me what it says about humanity is There's lots of people who do great things. They make money without Christ. They are kind to people without without Christ They I don't know do all sorts of amazing wonderful great things without Christ what this is saying is The path the way the proper like

The thing that God wants for us is not what this world will say will always say is good It's not even that those good things are not good It's just that there is some completely different purpose that is in Christ that only he can illuminate. Yeah, right Yeah, I think light There's been a wrestle with me. I think I'm processing The good the full goodness of light because I think light can bring Exposure, but it also can bring warmth So I think there's this this line that we walk that's like comforting but also confronting Okay, I can bring both and that's that's great and that's what it's supposed to do but also it can be uncomfortable because That's the intent of light fully like it shows everything in full totality Even if it's not good, even if it's not good. Yeah Yeah, I was like going to the doctor when you don't want to or something, right? Like I don't want the doctor to explain like what to whatever like to press on my wound or yeah Give me a shot or something, but in the long run That's what's best for me. Yeah That's fun. I don't know if this makes sense or not, but reminds me of like in The food scene. This is probably doesn't a couple dozens of years ago is when there was like a big and Heightened like exposure what's happening in the kitchen? And so people started putting windows and setting up their restaurants. This is the kitchen See so they can very clearly be like here's what we're doing Yeah, like you don't want to see like how the sausage is made Yeah, like how people are cooking stuff like that Essentially, they're like no we will show you so that you will want to eat it more. That's just reminded me of that Oh, that's interesting. Yeah, it's super interesting You don't always want you don't always want to know but there is I think that's part of it is like God is glorified when dark things come to light And so even though it might be uncomfortable to bring the dark things to light I think that there's an internal part of us that wants to be in the light. Mm-hmm, even though it might be hard Mm-hmm. Yep. Yeah, I think about the thing about the window like our favorite pizza place to go has that giant. Yeah It's called dewey's

People could watch you Flipping the crust up. We're doing this. I only got one shift to actually But What's gonna say my kids love them watching doing that but it's kind of me Anyway, that was tangent to say that I think trust is built through transparency Which is why we have the window right like I can trust that the kitchen is taking care of me They're not like using dirty hands or whatever. And yeah, yeah light light brings the transparency, right? Even if we're not ready for it, we're gonna build trust with God He's gonna shine his light on us and he's gonna expose some things that maybe we're not proud of You're gonna lead to a better place. Yeah Can anyone think of a time that's happened in your life? Because I don't want to talk about it. I want some real Let's go I Think recently actually for me I think one thing that I Felt exposed in or God is like trying to expose is the way that I talk about other people and how Judgmental I am and I I don't know. I just feel like That's something that has come up recently. I was just talking with a friend about a situation and I said that person's just so hard for me to talk to and my friend said do they know that and I was like But I fall into that trap so easily and can just be I could just be really judgmental and I can especially be judgmental when I'm not talking to the person about it because that's so easy for me and that's Just so that's just so yucky and I don't want to bring that up to the person like that's hard and I don't want to I want to tell people about that that's that's yucky, but Yeah, that's a great example. Thank you. Thanks for sharing that So trust with each other and trust with God is built by being transparent. Here's the good news You don't have to wear a mask with God. You don't have to act like you don't think that way You don't have to act like you don't have those habits

or that your life is perfect, because He already knows, right? So be honest with Him, bring something into the light, maybe talk to God about it for the first time, if you haven't, that will build trust with Him that will take your life to a new place. We'll see you next time.