Lights in Darkness
"Then Jesus asked them, 'Would anyone light a lamp and then put it under a basket or under a bed to shut out the light? Of course not! A lamp is placed on a stand, where its light will shine'" - Mark 4:21 (NLT).
This past weekend my son and I took a trip the Lake Havasu City to celebrate his sixteenth birthday (a special birthday in our family). On the drive home, the highway that runs through the desert was so very dark. There were no lights at all, and at one point my son commented about how dark it was.
I told him that in Desert Storm I had to go through the dark desert without even using my headlights much of the time. To illustrate what this was like, I waited until we were on a very long straight section of road, slowed down, and turned off our car lights for just a fraction of a second. The blackness was overwhelming. We could not see anything at all, not even each other. I quickly turned the headlights back on, and we could once again see.
For that brief second that I turned the lights off, the darkness was frightening. The road disappeared completely, and we had the sensation of being propelled into an abyss. Though it was only for a split second, we both realized how terrible and how utterly demoralizing it would be to try to drive in such darkness without light. In fact, we saw that it would be impossible to travel at all for we would quickly run off the road into a rock wall or ditch.
Many people we know are driving in utter darkness. Their lives are devoid of the light of God to guide them. They do not know Christ, or his Word, or their purpose for existence. Still, they plunge ahead trying to make sense out of life, and make it through despite the spiritual darkness that envelopes them.
Couples attempting to hold their marriages together; young people trying to survive school; parents coping with their children's misbehavior; leaders dealing with job demands; single parents juggling job, children and relationships; older people enduring the effects of age; grieving people suffering unimaginable loss - - all of these and more, wandering in the darkness, desperate for hope.
The blackness overwhelms them at times. Their lives are like a car going seventy-five miles per hour down a road in the desert in the dark. It is frightening. It is demoralizing. It incites panic in the heart. Soon, many smash into rock walls, or fall into the abyss of a ditch.
They need hope. They need light. But who will give it to them?
Jesus says that we will. We are lights in a dark, dark world. Why? Because we know the meaning of life. We know that we were created to bear God's image in this world. We know that this means we are to resemble and reflect God to others. We know that the only hope of living beyond this life is found in our crucified and resurrected Lord Jesus. We know that God's Word brings us daily direction, and his Spirit daily power to make it through. We know that in trouble is help; in desperation there is hope, in pain there is joy; in death there is life.
This knowledge lights our lamps and fans the flames of hope in our souls. Our lamps burn brightly within us. Even when times are tough, and our lamps burn dimmer, they do not go out completely, for in the deepest recesses of our hearts, we know God.
And so it becomes our most important purpose in life to shine our lamps into the dark lives of those around us who are still wandering in darkness, so that they, too, may know God.
Imagine coping with tough times without our Lord? Imagine living through loss without our Christ? Imagine struggling under the heavy loads we bear without God's Spirit, God's Book, and God's people to see us through.
Imagine this, and you know how most around you live. With this in mind, do not hide your lamp. Do not hide the fact that you know God. Do not conceal the truth that you are a Christian and know the way. Instead, gently shine your light into the dark world of those around you.
Be lights in their darkness. Show them the way home.