Saturday, May 27, 2006
Shine Your Light...but not in my eyes
"For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God's one and only Son. This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God."
One summer when I was preparing to go to summer camp I headed out to the local outdoors store to find a flashlight. It seemed like a normal thing to bring to camp for those late night excursions to pillage and torment. So I walked up and down the isles taken back by the vast selection of sizes, styles and colors of these nocturnal illumination devices. Then I saw her. She was beautiful. I had never seen her equal among battery-powered torches. It stretched to nearly 30” in length. It was made of black anodized aluminum and was powered by 5 “D” batteries. I decided then and there that I must have it. I decided to forgo the camo pants, black facemask, and can of silly string and devoted all of my earthly resources to this trophy that I would proudly display to everyone I met. Actually, I couldn’t hide it…it basically displayed itself.
Once at camp everyone was clearly very impressed. I shined it into the sky at night. We all stood in awe. I was invincible in the night. But to truly display the power beget to me by this flashlight I had to find out what would elicit the greatest reaction. I quickly discovered that shining the super bright flashlight directly into people’s eyes was very effective at getting a strong reaction. Consequently I became a great annoyance to everyone that I came in contact with.
Isn’t it ironic that I would use a flashlight to temporarily blind people when it’s whole purpose was to help them see?
In John 3: 16-21, Jesus refers to himself as a light. In Matthew 5 Jesus calls his followers the light of the world. Sometimes we get confused about what it really means to be a light. Some Christians use the light like I did at summer camp. Somehow the truth does more harm than good? Is that possible, you ask? Actually, yes it is. I’m not proposing that we abandon the truth, though. We need to use the truth as Jesus did. In the same passage in John that I referred to earlier, Jesus starts off by saying that he didn’t come to condemn the world, and yet some people experience that condemnation the strongest around people that call themselves Christ followers.
The purpose of the light is to reveal, not create. We live in a world where all kinds of images are created by light. The image that I’m looking at right now is basically light from my computer monitor being received by my eyes. We watch TV, movies, and play video games. All of which are different ways that we manipulate light. Jesus wasn’t that kind of light. This light that he’s talking about wasn’t creating anything new, it was revealing what he already has created. He came to uncover reality. PURE REALITY. When we live in darkness we can’t see it; that’s why Jesus needed to bring light, and that’s why he’s asked us to be light as well. He wants people to live in pure reality, not the tainted imagined reality that we come up with while stumbling around in the dark.
Be the light that reveals the truth to those around you. Even at that, not everyone will like it. Those that love the darkness will avoid the light, and that might mean that people will avoid you. I have hope that those who stumble in darkness long enough with be drawn to the light eventually. Just keep being light, keep revealing truth, and don’t shine it in peoples’ eyes and the stumblers will find their way to you.
BTW…the next year at summer camp, some freshman discovered a 6 “D” flashlight. Even more annoying.
One summer when I was preparing to go to summer camp I headed out to the local outdoors store to find a flashlight. It seemed like a normal thing to bring to camp for those late night excursions to pillage and torment. So I walked up and down the isles taken back by the vast selection of sizes, styles and colors of these nocturnal illumination devices. Then I saw her. She was beautiful. I had never seen her equal among battery-powered torches. It stretched to nearly 30” in length. It was made of black anodized aluminum and was powered by 5 “D” batteries. I decided then and there that I must have it. I decided to forgo the camo pants, black facemask, and can of silly string and devoted all of my earthly resources to this trophy that I would proudly display to everyone I met. Actually, I couldn’t hide it…it basically displayed itself.
Once at camp everyone was clearly very impressed. I shined it into the sky at night. We all stood in awe. I was invincible in the night. But to truly display the power beget to me by this flashlight I had to find out what would elicit the greatest reaction. I quickly discovered that shining the super bright flashlight directly into people’s eyes was very effective at getting a strong reaction. Consequently I became a great annoyance to everyone that I came in contact with.
Isn’t it ironic that I would use a flashlight to temporarily blind people when it’s whole purpose was to help them see?
In John 3: 16-21, Jesus refers to himself as a light. In Matthew 5 Jesus calls his followers the light of the world. Sometimes we get confused about what it really means to be a light. Some Christians use the light like I did at summer camp. Somehow the truth does more harm than good? Is that possible, you ask? Actually, yes it is. I’m not proposing that we abandon the truth, though. We need to use the truth as Jesus did. In the same passage in John that I referred to earlier, Jesus starts off by saying that he didn’t come to condemn the world, and yet some people experience that condemnation the strongest around people that call themselves Christ followers.
The purpose of the light is to reveal, not create. We live in a world where all kinds of images are created by light. The image that I’m looking at right now is basically light from my computer monitor being received by my eyes. We watch TV, movies, and play video games. All of which are different ways that we manipulate light. Jesus wasn’t that kind of light. This light that he’s talking about wasn’t creating anything new, it was revealing what he already has created. He came to uncover reality. PURE REALITY. When we live in darkness we can’t see it; that’s why Jesus needed to bring light, and that’s why he’s asked us to be light as well. He wants people to live in pure reality, not the tainted imagined reality that we come up with while stumbling around in the dark.
Be the light that reveals the truth to those around you. Even at that, not everyone will like it. Those that love the darkness will avoid the light, and that might mean that people will avoid you. I have hope that those who stumble in darkness long enough with be drawn to the light eventually. Just keep being light, keep revealing truth, and don’t shine it in peoples’ eyes and the stumblers will find their way to you.
BTW…the next year at summer camp, some freshman discovered a 6 “D” flashlight. Even more annoying.
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