The Bible uses interesting words to describe the natural spiritual condition of human beings. You’ve read the parable of the prodigal son and the fact that he was lost, and had been found, he had been dead, and now is alive.  The other day, I was reading one of Paul’s letters and he uses the word, an “ignorance” that we have for the things of God. You’ve heard the words in the song Amazing Grace, “I was blind but now I see.” However, the words that are most often used to describe the human spiritual condition, are these: to be in darkness. The idea of walking through life in darkness, not knowing where to go, or what to do.

In the book of John alone, you see this contrast between light and darkness throughout the entire book. For instance, “Jesus spoke to them saying, I am the light of the world. He who follows Me will not walk in the darkness but will have the light of life.” John 8:12. In John 12:35, “So Jesus said to them, for a little while longer the Light is among you. Walk while you have the Light so that the darkness will not overtake you. He who walks in the darkness does not know where he goes.”

I see this a lot, men not knowing where they’re going. As Jesus put it, “I have come as Light into the world so that everyone who believes in Me will not remain in the darkness.” And the verse that I find most perplexing, and yet so true, is John 3:19. It talks about the Light, Jesus, has come into the world, but the problem is, men love the darkness. In the physical world that we live in, rarely do you find yourself in complete, total darkness. We have lights everywhere, and when we go outside, we’ve got stars. However, if you’ve ever been in total pitch-black darkness, one of the things you soon realize is it’s totally disorienting.

I was in a hotel room with my wife and this happened to me. It was a nice room with a suite, and I got up in the middle of the night to go to the bathroom. I didn’t turn on the light so I wouldn’t wake up my wife. Then, I think I’m going back to my side of the bed, and the next thing you know, I’m in the next room, in the closet, trying to find my way around. That’s what the darkness does. It has a powerful disorienting effect.

Back in 1914, British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew took a ship to Antarctica. Their plan was to land and walk across Antarctica and all the way across the South Pole. The problem was their plan had to be abandoned because their ship, The Endurance, got caught in polar ice and was crushed. They were stuck and over the following months, even though this is the milder part of the winter, their crew fought to survive and get home.

One of Shackleton’s biographers stated that in all the difficulties they faced, including starvation and frigid temperatures, he said the worst thing was the darkness. Because near the South Pole, the sun goes down in mid-May, it doesn’t come back until late July, and there’s no daytime. Ever. There’s no sunshine. There’s no sunlight. And they had to endure that over two months. You see, polar explorers will tell you there is nothing more desolate than the polar night. It will drive men mad because it’s so disorienting and leaves you in such isolation – the darkness.

But this is also true of spiritual darkness. Tim Keller says spiritual darkness comes when we turn away from God as our true light and make something else the center of our lives. He says the Bible sometimes compares God to the sun. Why is the sun so important? It’s the source of visual truth because by it, we see everything. The sun is a source of biological life because without it, nothing could live.

And God, the Bible says, is the source of all truth and all life. If you orbit around God, then your life has truth and vitality. You are in the light. But if you turn away from God, and orbit around yourself, the result is spiritual darkness. You are turning away from the truth, away from life, towards the darkness.

What I’ve found to be true, in the work that I do in meeting with men, when you are in spiritual darkness, you may think you’re heading in the right direction, but you’re not. In reality, you are profoundly disoriented. You generally do not discover this until you crash.

Richard E Simmons III is the founder and Executive Director of The Center for Executive Leadership and a best-selling author.