How To Deal With Your Dark Side

Christ says, "Are there not 12 hours in a day?    
If any one walks in the day he doesn't stumble    
Because he sees the light of this world.    
But if he walks in the night he stumbles      
Because the light is not in him"(John 11.9).    
     
Here's the interpretation of this parable:    
The daylight hours are those times in which      
A Christian feels like a Christian should.    
If temptation comes to mind, he bats it out of the ballpark.    
Like a major league baseball player hitting a home run.    
     
But the darkness of the night stands for those periods when your mind is in the gutter.    
When temptation comes, you give in - like "doing it" is the most natural thing in the world.    
     
Metaphorically, "night" and "day" represent the two sides of what    
The Apostle James calls "the double-minded man"(James 1.8; 4.8).    
   
What is the point Christ is making?    
As if to explain,He says, "We must work the works of Him who sent us    
W  H  I  L  E     I  T     I  S    D  A  Y.    
For the night is coming in which no man can work"(John 9.4).    
The message is that we must make use of those times in which  we are in our "right mind,"    
Taking action, accomplishing worthy things, noble deeds.    
So that when the "darkness" of the "night of the soul" befalls us,  
we are shielded, protected, by those good works,    
the "good works for which God created us" (Ephesians 2.10).  
   
We are to "fight fire with fire," meaning    
we are to fight (bad) pleasure with (good) pleasure.    
If we don't do enuff good works that give us real pleasure/joy  
- the good pleasure that comes from obeying God's leading -  
Then our natural need for pleasure/satisfaction/accomplishment    
will most likely get fulfilled, instead, by worldly, carnal pleasure/cheap thrills/partying.  
 
Another way to put it, if we use the Summer and Fall to chop firewood and stack it,  
Then when the darkness descends, the cold darkness of Winter,  
Our good (preparatory) deeds (creating the edifice of stacked wood) will sustain us.  
It's only natural to not want to stack firewood when the blizzard has already come.  
Meaning you can't depend on self control to keep you straight in times of temptation  
If you have foolishly squandered your time/opportunity to work righteousness    
when you WEREN'T sorely tempted.  
   
When you don't feel like a Christian (due to the secular people you hang with,  
Or the popular "culture" of immediate gratification, titillation, "youthful lusts," etc),  
You likewise don't really want to do right, so you are bound to succumb to temptation.  
Only by taking the righteousness of Christ and making it our own  
by following His leading during the good times in terms of DEEDS we actually DO,  
Can we build equity, making His Presence real enuff to withstand the allure of sin.