The darkness was over bearing in the forest. Charles was making his way through the the trees on his way back home. He knew the woods well enough. They were a place of security for Charles . . . when the sun was up. Charles left too late from the lake he fished at. The familiar paths were now shrouded in a darkness only found in the woods far from any city lights. In the dark, the friendly woods took on a sinister quality.

Charles didn’t plan on walking through the woods at night. He did his best to be back at home before sun down to avoid the very situation that he was currently in. Charles hated the dark the most. He fashioned a make shift torch out of the campfire he made by the lake. The torch was a boon for Charles because it kept the darkness at bay.

However, the shadows the torch made were terrifying. The shadows were dancing around Charles; as if the darkness were teasing Charles. One misstep and the darkness will once again swoop onto Charles. The shadows were mocking him. They were whispering taunts that time was on their side. All they had to do was wait for the torch to sputter out.

It was a short walk back to the cabin. The walk took thirty minutes at a normal pace. Charles was not walking normal. His fear of the dark stole his confidence in the woods that he loved. The path between the cabin and the lake is clear in the day time, but unrecognizable in the dark. It was not well kept. Charles had to swat aside branches and watch for roots. The shadows played their tricks on Charles by creating holes where there were none and hiding branches which were everywhere.

Charles had been slowly moving forward for an hour now. His steps were hesitant. The torch helped, but only for a few feet. Every time he lifted a foot, it took an act of will to plunge into the darkness. Every time his foot touched ground, it was a wave of relief. The darkness was overwhelming. The shadows threatened Charles that the world no longer existed. The world was already consumed by the darkness. The light of the torch only offered a lie. The darkness that surrounded Charles was the truth. Charles believed the shadows more than his memories of the forest in the day time.

The fear of Charles grew and grew and grew. His legs were growing tired by his meticulous crawl through the woods. His arms were tired from carrying the torch and fishing supplies. His face and limbs were getting scratched from the wilderness. All of these annoyances were tolerable. The one pain that Charles could not ignore was the pain caused by the torch burning low. Charles had spent too much time walking. The torch was within moments from betraying Charles and joining the darkness.

Charles breathing quickened. Charles began recklessly running through the woods. His sweat made the small scratches on his face sting. The flames of the torch dwindled into embers. Charles gripped it as long as he could, but with a yelp, he dropped the torch. The shadows had him now.

Charles tripped and crashed onto the ground. He clenched his eyes shut as a last attempt to protect himself from the dark. He curled up on the ground frozen by fear. He didn’t know how far away the cabin was, but it felt like miles. Charles refused to open his eyes. The one ally he had was the torch and it was gone. Any moment, he will be taken by the shadows into the darkness that he feared.

It never happened. After a while, Charles grew brave enough to open his eyes. Charles was expecting an all penetrating darkness. Instead, a full night sky was bright with a celestial light. the light of the stars filled the woods that he loved. His tumble brought him to the edge of the woods. He succeeded and the cabin was just ahead. There was a boundless joy in Charles when he realize the trial was over.

The shadows died along with the the torch. It was the light of the torch that made the darkness intense. With the light of the stars and moon, everything was awash with a peaceful glow. Charles picked himself up and arrived home safely.

We often struggle with the idols in our lives. We are called to love and trust God, the one who made us. Instead, we trust the idols in our lives: money, popularity, pleasures, and so on. We even become enraged or hurt when these idols of ours are destroyed. Charles in the story made his torch into an idol. He grasped onto it as long as he could. However, when that idol was destroyed the glorious light of the stars shined all the brighter. It wasn’t until the torch was destroyed that he could see the new light of the starts.

It is the same with our lives. We may experience set backs that devastate us. We may lose the very thing that we believe gives us happiness. However, if it is not God, then we can stand to lose it. If our idols are destroyed, then there is only one feeling that we should feel: LIBERATION.

We enslave ourselves to that which gives us comfort and pleasure. We ignore the assistance of God and our loved ones. We white knuckle our way through life with the lie we have no other choice. We become trapped by our own devotion to our idols. God will, we lose our idol. Once we do, then we can see the world in a new way. Let us give thanks for those times where we haven fallen so that we may raise to higher heights with God!