1 Peter 2:9
But you are…a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of Him who called you out of darkness into His wonderful light.
Sydney loves light. Well, maybe she doesn’t love light as much as she dislikes the dark, but anywhere she goes in our house will involve her turning on every light switch from the point of origin until the point of destination! And often, you can tell where she’s been because she’s still working on turning the lights off as she leaves where she’s been. It drives me nuts because she doesn’t pay the power bill (as I’m sure most 7 year-olds don’t), but on a spiritual level, I love the application of her simple action. You see, Sydney is never really comfortable in darkness. I fear that sometimes you and I may be.
Now, I don’t mean that all of us have this dark, sinister side that we’re trying to hide from others who know us. What I mean is that I find myself not flipping the light switch in my house because I don’t think that I need to (and I’m cheap when it comes to the power bill!!). Over time I’ve learned about how many steps it takes to get from one end of the hall to the next, or from the den to the bathroom, and so on. This is probably a great skill to have for saving money, but it isn’t such a great skill to develop for spiritual growth, because the last thing we need to be doing is cutting corners on how much light shines in our lives.
One could argue that the current apathetic trend within the North American church can be traced back to believers becoming more like me and less like Sydney. We’ve acquired (for the worse, I’d say) a real knack for walking in the least amount of light possible. We stumble in the dark because we feel that we don’t really need all that light like we used to when we were just little faith-kids that were afraid of the dark. Sure we knock our knees against the coffee-table every now and again, or hit the doorframe with our big toe, but we never seem to make the connection that God wants to shine light at all times and in every situation. Plus, He’s taken care of the power bill!! No skimping necessary!
Forget those old Nike commercials that convinced us that we should want to be like Mike. I want to be like Sydney! Turn all those light switches on and fill the house with light from every bulb possible! Let it shine all the time, everywhere.
It won’t get you any awards for going green, but it’ll keep you a lot farther from sin.
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