By Lindsay Mast
Synopsis: As Solomon said, “The path of the righteous is like the light of dawn, that shines brighter and brighter until the full day. The way of the wicked is like darkness; they do not know over what they stumble (Prov. 4:18-19).
Thy word is a lamp unto my feet, and a light unto my path (Ps. 119:105).
Over the last decade, I’ve had the pleasure of running more than a dozen overnight relays. (I understand this may not sound pleasurable to everyone, but some of us oddballs love it.) These weekends find me and my friends running throughout the day, but also at dusk, at 3:00 am, and at dawn—you get the picture.
Everyone on these teams comes with a fully charged headlamp for nighttime, but things happen. Twice, I’ve had a teammate whose headlamp died with a couple of miles left on a dark, twisting path. The run slows to a walk and they still never feel certain about where they should place their feet. It’s a recipe for a twisted ankle, a fall, or even an end to their race.
Like my runner friends, we need light to be confident in our walk on this earth. Without it, we will always be unsure about our choices. Is that a tree root or a snake? Is that noise a bear? Will the next step be stable, or am I about to walk off a ledge?
Nevertheless, in our spiritual race, God provides. Enter Scripture, which is a light for our path and a lamp for our feet. It is alive; it is powerful; it is trustworthy. It is essential. With it, we gain clarity and vision for where our footfalls should land.
Hebrews 4:12 tells us that the word of God is living and active, sharp, penetrative, giving us deep insight into thoughts and feelings. The Bible is constantly applicable to what we need to know to make the right choices right now. Have you ever read a familiar passage in the Bible, only to see it in a totally new way? It makes you pause and ask, “Was that always in there?!? How did I not see it before?” It is living. It is active. Likely, it is sitting near you, ready to cut through whatever challenge you are facing.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 tells us that Scripture—all of it—is directly from God and is profitable for anything we need. It can teach, rebuke, straighten out, train, and equip us to do what’s right. Have a question? It always helps to open our Bibles. Get to know our Father. Take His wisdom to heart. Learn from the examples of His people over the centuries.
Unlike my friends’ headlamps, the light of Scripture is eternally reliable. Even if my headlamp lasts the race, I’ll have to charge it next week. It can get lost. Someday the battery will decay and I’ll pitch it. In Mark 13:31, Jesus assures us that His words are different. They will never pass away. We can trust them implicitly. There’s no other light about which I can say that.
Runners love to eat. It fuels and re-fuels us for our runs, and most of us know exactly how much we need to keep going. Skipping eating is not good. We know that a run is better if it’s fed with quality food rather than junk.
In Deuteronomy 8 and Matthew 4, God tells us that His word is even more vital than physical food. Consider how much easier it would be to feel confident in our walk and our relationship with God if we heard from Him every day! So let’s determine to get into the word every day. What would happen if we committed to consuming just the good stuff, too? Because the Scripture is far more powerful than any podcast, blog post, or Instagram story about it could ever be.
My teammates and I use headlamps to see what’s in front of us. Even so, running at night makes the experience completely different. After running one particular leg several times in the dark, I knew it consisted of a lot of granite trail and had heard that there was water nearby, but I had never really seen it. It wasn’t until I ran it again in the daytime that I discovered a beautiful lake, a cabin, and lovely flowers everywhere. The light completely transformed the path. Let’s use the light of God’s word to transform our spiritual path.
