This was new. Using light to scare me. It had always been darkness before. I really jest about these occurrences as my brothers are some of my best friends now and I loved them dearly then. Both were in fact in my wedding (what was I thinking?!). And we laugh often about our “exciting” childhoods. We were all victims of such and I really did enjoy at least some of it! I knew there weren’t really alligators under the bed but it sure made getting up exciting just to think about it! But, the Tingler now, I think still might at least visit my house sometimes. At least that’s what my wife Tana tells me.

Jesus said, and I paraphrase (some might say “para-pervert”), “Hey guys, this is the deal. The light just came on here. But men like it better dark because they are planning and doing really bad stuff. These guys, the one doing bad stuff, do not like the light because it exposes their evil exploits. Trust me, they avoid it. But people that do what they’re supposed to be doing like the light as it allows them to get their work done, and it lets others to see and verify that they’re doing what God wants” (from John 3:19-20).

Isn’t it strange that Satan will try to use light to scare and intimidate us? Satan used light to sort of scare Eve, making her think she was missing out—“Did God REALLY say…?” (Gen. 3:1). Satan tried to use light to intimidate and lure Christ into playing along with him (and thus into sin)—“If you are the son of God, throw yourself down. For it is written: ‘He will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone’” (Matt. 4:6; Psa. 91:11-12). Two more times in the desert testing, Satan uses God’s word in an attempt to blind Christ’s eyes for at least long enough to trick him. He, of course failed, and Satan left Christ (Matt. 4:11) as James said would happen with us (Ja. 4:7).

But if only Satan can shock us—scare us—with the Light. When we’ve been in the dark for quite a while and a bright light is turned on, it really hurts for a minute or two, doesn’t it? It even scares us a bit. In fact it is blinding, and if you look right at it, you’ll have spots in your eyes for several minutes afterward.

“Did God (Light) REALLY say…?” Boom: surprise, spots in the eyes. If only he can cause spots in our eyes for a just brief moment... If he can but only surprise us with the suddenness of a burst of light, while we have adjusted our eyes to the darkness for even just a time. The fear might just seize us for a moment. But that’s all the time Satan often needs. It just might cause us to freeze up long enough to cause us to fall for another of his shenanigans. “God says we are not to judge. So you should just let them do what they feel in their own hearts.” “God loves everybody and surely you don’t believe there are not lots of ways to God?” “How could a loving God send anybody into eternal fire?” Just for a moment we freeze in fear. Just long enough for our walks to be affected in some negative way. Just long enough to make us fear the Light (the Truth) itself. Himself.

We have been called out of darkness—ignorance, deceit, blindness, evil-living—into Light—knowledge of God, truth, vision, right-lighting (1 Pet. 2:9). But when we live in darkness or as Christians we get used to the darkness again, Satan can and will actually use light to scare us—to scare us AWAY from God. Jesus said something frightening and baffling when he said, “The eye is the lamp of the body. If your eyes are good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eyes are bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If then the light within you is darkness, how great is that darkness!” (Matt. 6:22-23).

This light and darkness things is a big deal. Go figure.