{"id":2597,"date":"2014-05-20T07:56:55","date_gmt":"2014-05-20T11:56:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/?p=2597"},"modified":"2016-10-19T09:12:16","modified_gmt":"2016-10-19T13:12:16","slug":"stay-in-the-light","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/05\/stay-in-the-light.html","title":{"rendered":"Stay in the light"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The 12-step alcoholics anonymous program starts with honesty. Anyone seeking improvement must first admit they need help. This generally comes after years of denial, after years of refusing to admit the truth that there is a problem.<\/p>\n<p>Alcoholics do not have a monopoly on the habit of refusing to admit truth.<\/p>\n<p>Parents, spouses, co-workers, bosses, consumerists, religious folk, leaders, me, the list goes on, all have been known to not see the plain truth, even when it\u2019s staring us in the face.<\/p>\n<p>The whole situation of someone being oblivious to the truth is mind-boggling. We try to justify or explain it. Even this verse from the Gospel John has been used to interpret the ignorance: \u201cAnd the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not.\u201d (KJV)<\/p>\n<p>This sort of makes sense in that a lie can&#8217;t know truth, or that dishonesty doesn\u2019t comprehend honesty.<\/p>\n<p>We may even think there are some people who don\u2019t want to know the truth. They\u2019d rather die with their lie. But, these thoughts are&#8230;, well&#8230;, dark.<\/p>\n<p>Thankfully, we can back-up a step and stay in the light.<\/p>\n<p>Other <a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2012\/07\/ingredients-in-the-bible.html\">Bible translations<\/a> of the same verse read: \u201cThe light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.\u201d (ESV). Or, \u201cThe light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.\u201d (Phillips)<\/p>\n<p>This view focuses on the light.<\/p>\n<p>There are times when we need to stand for a higher truth, whether it calls for more selflessness in the family, more justice in society, more vision in an organization, or more<a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2013\/09\/work-remains-to-realize-eddys-hope.html\"> hard work.<\/a> And, as we shine with the truth, without giving power to the darkness or dishonesty, we see and experience that, \u201cthe light still shines.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The 12-step alcoholics anonymous program starts with honesty. Anyone seeking improvement must first admit they need help. This generally comes after years of denial, after years of refusing to admit the truth that there is a problem. Alcoholics do not have a monopoly on the habit of refusing to admit truth. Parents, spouses, co-workers, bosses,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":429,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,7],"tags":[1372,1370,1369,1371,109],"class_list":["post-2597","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-community_world","category-at-work","tag-al-anon","tag-light-energy","tag-light-force","tag-twelve-step","tag-what-is-christian-science"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Stay in the light - Everyday Spirituality<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/05\/stay-in-the-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Stay in the light - Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The 12-step alcoholics anonymous program starts with honesty. Anyone seeking improvement must first admit they need help. This generally comes after years of denial, after years of refusing to admit the truth that there is a problem. Alcoholics do not have a monopoly on the habit of refusing to admit truth. Parents, spouses, co-workers, bosses,&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/05\/stay-in-the-light.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Everyday Spirituality\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-05-20T11:56:55+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2016-10-19T13:12:16+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cheryl Petersen\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@cherylpetersen\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Stay in the light - Everyday Spirituality","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayspirituality\/2014\/05\/stay-in-the-light.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Stay in the light - Everyday Spirituality","og_description":"The 12-step alcoholics anonymous program starts with honesty. Anyone seeking improvement must first admit they need help. This generally comes after years of denial, after years of refusing to admit the truth that there is a problem. Alcoholics do not have a monopoly on the habit of refusing to admit truth. 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