Shadows truths

"My vision is blurred but I know what I heard echoing all around me..." -Brooke Fraser

I've found that in the last four years of highschool, I have been dancing in the shadows.  Living in them.  Soaking them up.  Pretty much lovingg these shadows on the wall.


Before we begin, let's do a quick flashback. 1st period. 8 AM. Senior year.


I was sitting there in Mr. Zapler's philosophy class Issues and Answers and today was the day when we were to begin Plato's "Allegory of the Cave".  Sitting in the first row dead center, completely exhausted and kind of hating that I even had to be there, I had already shut my mind off to good old Plato.

After reading the story a few times, I ticked off the minutes until I would be free.  We were 'supposed' to go home and journal about the story...but I didn't. Whoops.  The next day we began covering the themes of the story and I was a bit in the dark about what people were even talking about.  2 minutes in I was shocked.  There were prisoners living inside of a dark cave who had based their entire existence on the shadows dancing on the walls in front of them because of the chains on them.  One of them was set free and the truth of the light came upon him with a mission to tell the others.  Rejecting the truth, they killed the prisoner and returned to their miserable existence in the shadows.  

The underlying theme of the entire story was God-related!! Where was I when this happened?! This story was a sad reflection of what my life had become.  We began a debate in this classroom that I will never forget starting off with a very difficult question.  What are shadows of the truth in your life? In other words, what are you seeking after and following that in the end leaves you coming up empty? 

That boy or girl you were convinced in high school was "The One". Forever.  Those perfect grades you believed would lead you to every dream you've sought after.  That feeling of acceptance from everyone around you. That impossibly perfect image of yourself that you nearly broke yourself for only to discover that its a waste of your precious time.  The sad truth about all of this is simple.  This was me last year. 

I became a true Christian about a year ago when I got baptized and yet I still chose to live in the lies that had been fed to me in highschool about what my life should be about.  Grades, getting into the best college, the perfect body, peer acceptance at school and church.  In reality, I should have never been looking to anything or anyone else but God to fill me up when I was reaching for answer.  I had been personally shown the light and yet for so long I chose to return to my old selfish patterns and way of thinking. 

If you've stepped out into the light, chances are you'll be able to see right through the shadows in your own life.  The light of the fire IS the sun and that is God.  As we continue on in this journey, living and breathing solely for these lies, our lives will never become what they COULD be. 

Embrace His light and I promise you your life will never be what it once was.  You'll be living for something so much greater than shadows cast on the side of a cave; the beauty of God.

"It's easier to stay but I've heard rumours of true reality whispers of a well-lit way."-Brooke Fraser