Light. A form of radiance that exposes darkness and brings forth a visibility which can change one’s direction, appearance, and outlook in every aspect of life. It is a feeling that one can have on the inside that can make the heaviest burden feel like a feather in the soul. Question is, can we who are called to carry such a glimmer of hope really desire to do it?

As Christians, are we showing a light that can bring a smile to someone’s face and for a chance, show that Christ can be the hope we truly look for. Ephesians 5:8 says, “For you were once darkness, but now you are the light in the Lord. Live as children of light..� To fathom such a mystery, to understand that God took us out of the miry clay of life, pride, selfishness, our own hurts, blindness, and made us see by the illumination of Him giving us a fresh start. I find sometimes myself forgetting that it was God who gave me new life and a light that should shine so brightly in me that I don’t show it.

The greatest thing about understanding new life and living it in Christ is that it’s never going to end until we are called home. This continues a pursuance in us and a constant declaration that we want to Him more and show Him more. It’s an emergence of breaking out of the darkness that realizing that what is around us has so much opportunity. I love the feeling of emerging, the way it feels when I find myself coming out of the darkness and into the light; everything is so much sweeter and more vibrant. Little things become stunningly beautiful and that which has been taken for granted becomes unbelievably precious.

In a recent conversation with a homeless person on the street in downtown Louisville, JW (and they don’t mean anything) explained to me his perception of homeless people to the church. His biggest problem is that the “church talks much but doesn’t do much. It’s easier for them to look at our addictions and what put us in our mess and make sure that we know it. You don’t see many people coming downtown to just hand out hamburgers and getting to know us with an opportunity to show a hope.� A hope that is a light in which we carry inside of ourselves; one that has opened up hundreds of homeless people’s eyes by a church that just wants to feed them, now they want to be picked up and go twenty-miles north to a church they never have been to.

You see, light has away of getting rid of misunderstanding, darkness, and giving a new understanding of what love really means in this world. With Christ in us and being children of the One who is the most joyful being in the universe, we have capacity to shine a light that can change a world. We can’t produce it or copy it, but we can hide it if we choose to. If you see someone in need and have the means to do something about, but turn a cold shoulder and do nothing, what happens to God’s light in you? It disappears.

Are you shining? Do you understand that there is a candle inside of you that is showing through your words and actions? Or is the real question to ask, “How many lightless Christians are hurting the cause of Christ?� Christ paid a price, showed his love, and while we were still sinning and shaking our fist at Him, He died for us. That’s love that produces an illumination that people are searching for. Unfortunately we shape our dark understanding of life by our own circumstances that He is beckoning us to look at Him. Maybe this is why He is trying to just get us to turn from our “busyness� and distractions and remember that we have a job to do.

In the words of a missionary who gave his life overseas, John Keith Falconer said this, “I have but one candle of life to burn, and I would rather burn it out in a land filled with darkness than a land flooded with light.� We have one candle, but the light comes from inside, let those in the darkness emerge into the light by your illumination. We are emerging everyday from our old self, still striving to become more like Christ everyday. That should give us joy to know that the burden though isn’t on us, Christ perfects us already and His joy (and light) is made complete in us. Emerge, radiant, shine, or whatever you call it, just let Him out for others to see.

John Blair

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