Jeff Dowdy's Blog

This morning I had a wonderful run. I woke up around 5:30 am, washed my face, put in my contacts, grabbed my water bottles, put on my watch and heart rate monitor, and finally strapped on my ipod that tracks my distance and pace. Usually I check my pace and heart rate rather often but this morning I just wanted to run for the fun of it. It was in the 50's so it was nice and cool. It doesn't get light here til close to 7 am so I was going to run in the dark. I knew the path well even when it got dark as I run it often. Along the run I made several observations that the Lord gave me insight to about this dark world.

In the book of John and I John, the disciple John speaks about the light and dark contrast that is found in this world and the light of Christ. He says that this world is dark and that Christ is light. Jesus said that as Christians we were to be the light of the world, a city set on a hill. Paul said in Ephesians 6 that this world is a dark place full of spiritual forces. I know that many non-Christians are in the dark but don't even know it and many Christians live in the light but fail to share it.

As I ran along this morning I tripped over a couple of branches that were over the road. These reminded me that often those in the dark often trip over things that if they lived in the light they would not have any trouble avoiding. These items are clear whenever you work with addicts or those who simply went too far in a particular sin.

The most amazing thing happened when I had started the run back to my house. I was in an area that was especially dark. The headlights on cars would nearly blind me as I ran. Even on the sidewalk I could not see. All of a sudden about 2 feet in front of me an older gentleman sneezed. I did not even see him. I jumped to the side and avoided him. If he had not sneezed I would have plowed right over him. This reminded me of when we as Christians simply try to quickly shine our light somewhere as we drive by instead of stopping and sharing the light as we should. Needless to say it was a scary moment for me and I feel like those who are in the dark might be a bit scared when we as Christians do this same thing.

It was an eventful 10 miles that gave me a whole new perspective on what it means to be in the dark, and how desperate we need to be as Christians to share the light.