Bowls, Brights, or Beacons…
05/29/22.
“This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine…
Won’t let Satan ppffffhhhh it out, I’m gonna let it shine…
Hide it under a bushel, NO! I’m gonna let it shine…
Let it shine over all the world, I’m gonna let it shine…
Let it shine til Jesus comes, I’m gonna let it shine…
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”
Could you hear kids from VBS or Sunday School singing inside your heads as you read that? Me too.
In the message from Sunday, we were asked a question. “Do our actions, our witness to the world around us, give people a glimpse of the Light? The “light” in that question is of course the Light of Christ. His restorative power. His redemptive grace. His radiant love.
So… let’s sit on that question a bit… Do we reflect that Light?
I will admit that current events make it so hard to find the words to say sometimes… With so much darkness… even in our own lives at times… will our “little light” ever make a difference? Sometimes it feels like our “little light” isn’t even enough to light our own way, let alone light the way for others.
Maybe it would be helpful, relieving even, to look at our light differently. In Matthew 5 it says “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead, they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds, and glorify your Father in Heaven.”
According to Jesus, the light from our good deeds is not exactly what defeats the darkness, it reveals Jesus as the One that defeats the darkness. Yes, our good deeds can drive out the darkness, but it is still the redemptive grace of Jesus that alone can ultimately eliminate the darkness.
Hiding the light is obviously not helpful. But what is also not helpful is using our light to blind people. Think of the high beams on your car. They light the way forward perfectly, but if they are aimed at others, or back at us, we lose sight of the way forward.
So… we don’t hide the light, and we don’t blind each other (or ourselves) with the light. Then how do we let it shine?!
It seems from the words of Jesus that we are to operate more like lighthouses. Our light isn’t a weapon, it is a beacon. Our light isn’t a distraction, it gives direction. Our light is not meant to point out all the wrong ways, it’s meant to point to “The Way”.
For us to do that, we ourselves need to be pointing to Jesus. Our goal doesn’t need to be to outshine everyone else. Our goal doesn’t need to be to survive as the lone bright spot that keeps the darkness at bay. Just think, if the statistics are true that the majority of adults in the United States (60-70%) claim to be Christian, think of the witness we could be if we all unified under our calling to Christlikeness. That’s a lot of little lights to expose and drive out the darkness in our culture, isn’t it?
We don’t need to fear the darkness. We don’t need to hide from the darkness. What we need to do is look around our world and ask ourselves; how can my light expose and drive out the current darkness, to make the witness of Jesus even brighter?