Four-Calendar Café

If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth.

1 John 1:6 (NIV)

It was 1993 and I was in the Czech Republic seeing things that no one I had ever known could have seen. I was in a little town called Olomouc, around 2:00 AM, and I was lost and alone. It would be many years until my first encounter with the Lord so I was knee-deep in the world and loving it.

After an intoxicating train ride from Prague, I hit the ground running when I got to Olomouc. After dinner, I had left the students I was staying with behind and headed over to Klub Nausea, a venue that had live music. I remember thinking how ironic it was that the band there my first night was from somewhere in the Midwestern United States. After a great evening of meeting new people and listening to new music I left Klub Nausea and wandered around Olomouc.

In 1993 I spoke Russian, German, and French. I was fluent in French while thinking that I could get by in Russian and German. One of the first things I noticed when I first got to the Czech Republic was no one wanted to speak Russian and everyone, once they knew I spoke English, wanted to talk to me in English. I also noticed, when I got to the Czech Republic, that most people thought I was from the area because of how I looked.

As I was wandering around Olomouc, I didn’t realize that I was lost until I noticed that I was walking in circles. It probably didn’t help that I knew nothing of the city nor had I paid attention to the route I had taken to wherever it was that I was at. My home base was in Paris and I spent a lot of time wandering around there. I had done the same in Amsterdam and in Prague so Olomouc shouldn’t have been any different.

Today, I was thinking about what it is to walk in the darkness. Several thoughts came to me. You can’t see where you’re going. You can’t see where you’ve come from and any light that you see is going to draw you because you want out of the darkness. For some reason, drowning comes to my mind, when you’re drowning you’ll reach out to whatever you can grab hold of to try and save yourself.

In Olomouc, lost, I remember the little bar I kept passing gave me some comfort. It was the only place where there were people. Stopping in, having a drink, and enjoying their presence, helped me as I wandered through the dark and wet night. The two police officers I stopped to talk to, in full Soviet-looking uniforms with AK-47s, also brought me a moment of comfort in my wandering. I also learned, as I wandered, that my German wasn’t what I thought it was since I couldn’t remember how to say that I was lost.

I don’t know why I’m talking about all of this today. I was thinking about what it means to walk in the darkness. I thought of being lost and what it feels like when the Lord brought this incident to mind. I suppose part of being in the darkness is being lost. We tell ourselves things that we want to believe and some of those things we do believe we find out aren’t the truth. When we walk with God we’re walking in His light. There are lots of different types of light in this world that may bring us comfort, from actual lights to the company of other people and places that feel familiar. The only light that reveals the truth, though, is that of our Father in Heaven.

Therefore, when we walk in the light with God, we are in fellowship with Him. We acknowledge that without Him we would be in the dark, wandering alone, and lost.

Do you know God? God knows you and He loves you. He sees you as significant because you are. No one is insignificant to Him. He’s with you today, right now, and He wants you to know Him. Jesus died for your sins and mine so that we could be free of guilt, be freed from death, and live eternally with Him. Eternal salvation is just a prayer away.

Pray this prayer with me to accept the gift of salvation today:

Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. Amen.

If you prayed that prayer then congratulations! You are on the first step of a brand new life. Allow me to be the first to welcome you to my family, the family of God. There are abundant resources available online for new Christians. You can visit here for more information on what to do next. You can also leave me a comment and I’ll do my best to help you on the next step of this incredible journey.