Light up the Darkness

Have you ever noticed that, as noon turns to dusk, if you haven't left the house, you don't notice how dark it becomes inside the house?  Another person enters the room and flips the light switch, and that's when you notice you'd been sitting in the dark.  They saw the darkness because of being in the light, but you simply did not see the darkness because it arrived so gradually.

Last year Jordan and I volunteered at Musilac, a large music festival held in Aix-les-Bains.  With a variety of bands and 3 solid days of camping and swimming and drinking and dancing, you can imagine the atmosphere; but it didn't seem so bad to us.  People were friendly, we had tasks to do, and we generally enjoyed it.

But this year it was different.

This year we didn't volunteer.  [We missed the deadline to sign-up, but, if we're honest, we weren't too disappointed.]  I did, however, go on Saturday night for a few hours with a free ticket from a friend.

And that's where I noticed the darkness.

Maybe I simply don't belong in that kind of environment.  Maybe it was because I went alone, having only 1 free ticket.  Maybe it was because I'd come from my peaceful home.  Or maybe my eyes were just opened.

Everywhere I looked people were drinking large quantities of alcohol.  Everywhere I looked people were dressed in skimpy shorts and tops and bikinis.  Everywhere I looked people were smoking who-knows-what.  Everywhere I looked I saw people seeking fulfillment - through entertainment, attention from others,  drugs, alcohol, food.

And I felt so sad.

Camping and music and swimming and friends and food and even alcohol are not bad things.  What was so sad was the fact that so many people know nothing else.  This is their life.  They live for these moments, these things.  But there is so much more.

And so I pray....

You shine brighter than everything You've created.  
Your yoke is lighter than the weight of the curse You've lifted. 
This is why we love You.  To You our lives we raise.
This is why we love you.  Here our lives, to You we raise.

We want to see Your Kingdom come
and light up the darkness here.
Make us Your instruments of Love
to bless the world.
Fill us up so Your love will overflow.
Your Kingdom come to Earth
and light up the darkness here.

You are King of kings and Greater than the greets.
You give purpose to these lives we would've wasted.
This is why we love you.  To You our lives we raise.
This is why we love You.  Here our lives, to You we raise.

Your love will light up the darkness here through us.

                                                     - Light up the Darkness, The Bridge Band