The true spiritual battle occurs in the “dark” of us, a contest between the light of our wish to be better than the bitterness in us, or higher than some heartache or hatred dragging us down. Whatever its nature, this struggle is between forces that are dark and denying and those light and affirming. The ground fought upon is for possession of our interior; to the victor go the spoils.

One mistake many of us make is that we believe that our ignorance of this contest in our consciousness is the same as immunity to its outcome. Nothing could be further from the truth. There is much at stake. And one of the reasons we may deny our responsibility in this cosmic contest is not so much from ignorance of it, but out of feeling ourselves overcome by its challenge.

But we cannot drop out of this contest. To accept defeat is to agree, by default, that darkness is superior to the Light. It is not. That sinking sense of self we have all felt when doing the dark thing we don’t want to do is only a temporary direction born out of a bad decision, and all such bad decisions are always made in the very darkness we then find ourselves decrying.

Here is the point: Everything can change –- become much brighter — if we will do our part. There is a Way to succeed in every spiritual battle. But, this kind of conquest over ourselves begins with calling upon the unseen strength of spiritual Light. This Light is not an imaginary force nor the sentimental stirring of self-gratifying emotions, yet we must place our whole heart into its Presence. This Light empowers us to turn back what punishes us.