all sorts of fear

Wednesday September 10^th, Romans 13:  11 And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. 12 The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. We have had a brown bear in the neighborhood.  Last year it snorted at my neighbor and when I walked my old dog, (she is gone now, RIP) she was very interested in the smells near the paths leading back into the woods.  When I walked her on her lease, I sort of felt like I was trolling for bear.  When fall came, I would carry the biggest best flashlight I could find and flash it all around while walking the dog.  Many things besides bears can hide in the darkness.  Paul goes through quite a list and it consists of greed for food and drink, greed for sexual encounter, and greed for power.  These human strivings are not always seen for what they are.  Most often they are under the cover of darkness and deceit.  On the political sphere, games are played, on the sexual sphere, games are played, on the financial sphere, games are played, and on the personal sphere games are played.  Game playing destroys community.  Games have winners and losers and the ratio is never one to one, for every winner there are hundreds or thousands of losers.  The solution is to bring things to the light, to bring things out in the open because it is there that things are seen for what they are.  It is also in the light that we are seen for who we are, and it is in the light that there is the possibility of hope for change and reconciliation.  Hidden in the dark, there are all sorts of fear and festering that can take place.  Revealed in the light, healing and reconciliation have a chance.