...But if we walk in the Light as He Himself is in the Light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus His Son cleanses us from all sin. -1 John 1:7 (NASB)
 
I'm an older brother. As is my God-ordained duty, I took liberty in terrorizing my younger sisters when we were growing up. One of my favorite tricks to play on them was to turn off their bedroom light and make horrifying monster noises. I didn't have to physically touch them or even wear a mask to invoke such fear; the darkness coupled with their imaginations (and my nasty, Gollum-esque taunts, of course) were enough to make them scream. Inevitably, Mom would come running in, turn on the light, and scold me. So, our fun would end, until next time.
 
There is something spiritual about the dark.

I used to be afraid of it when I was a little boy (fortunately, without an older sibling to scare me).

I think that it had to do with the mystery of darkness; the sheer unknown can make one tremble.

When I got older, I used the dark to my advantage. I would hide in it - waiting until the sun and my own sense of morality went to bed, so that I could do what I could never do in the light.
 
When I became a Christian, I first resisted stepping out of the darkness. I was afraid of giving up sins that I had secretly grown to love. Moreover, I had a misunderstanding of what it meant to "walk in the light." I thought that was a legalistic admonition to be perfect, something of which I knew I was incapable.
 
It took me awhile to realize what John meant when he told the early believers to "walk in the light." He wasn't calling for perfection; he was calling for confession. In verse 8, he says that anyone who says that he is without sin is a liar. And in verse 9, he tells us how to walk in the light that will purify us and bind us to our fellow brothers and sisters: "If we confess our sins, He is faithful and righteous to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness." What a relief.
 
A few friends and I stumbled upon the truth of this passage when we sought to redeem the darkness, following the prescription Paul gives for walking in the light - to have no fellowship with the "deeds of darkness" but to expose them (Ephesians 5:11). We did this by getting together every Thursday in an intimate group between the hours of 11pm and 3am, where we very brutally confessed our many sins and encouraged each other. There were tears, laughter, the occasional wrestling match (we were in college, after all), and songs of joy. Few things in my life that I've since experienced have been that authentic.
 
Scripture does say some very poignant things about remaining in the dark, of living in habitual sin, but I always thought the remedy was to "stop sinning, stupid." I didn't realize that the first step towards the light had little to do with moralism and everything to do with honesty in the context of community. Such openness provokes real fellowship, which inevitably leads to healing, and then we fulfill John's latter part of the promise - wholeness:
 
My little children, I am writing these things to you so that you may not sin. And if anyone sins, we have an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous... -1 John 2:1 (NASB)
 
This was part of a new blog networking thing I joined this month called Synchro-Blog. The theme was "light and darkness as motifs of spirituality." Here are some other posts (feel free to copy and paste this link into your blog and join the network - I'd be glad to add your link to the list):