Because everyone loves a good story
I’m Gonna Let It Shine
You thought I forgot about this blog, didn’t you? Well, I didn’t. I’ve been busy getting ready to sell some handmade stuff at a craft show, but I’m not too busy to check in with you and tell you what I was thinking about this morning. And no, it’s not the beginning of the promised discussion about story writing. For that, you’ll have to check back next week.
This morning I was reading in Luke 11, and among many other marvelous truths packed into that chapter, God was showing me one powerful truth through two great analogies. (Did you ever notice that God loves analogies? He packs so much into one little comparison, communicating much more than is stated. I think this is one of the reasons our hearts resonate with stories.) For example, check out this passage in which Jesus is talking to a crowd that followed Him:
Did you ever notice that God loves analogies? I think this is one of the reasons our hearts resonate with stories.
“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light, but when it is bad, your body is full of darkness. Therefore be careful lest the light in you be darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, having no part dark, it will be wholly bright, as when a lamp with its rays gives you light.”
All right, that’s actually one of Jesus’ analogies that gets confusing by the end. If you’re anything like me, you start out tracking along just fine, probably humming “This Little Light of Mine, I’m Gonna Let It Shine.” But then the analogy changes from lamps to eyes, and all of a sudden you’re wondering how things went from “Hide it under a bushel? No!” to some person with a bad eye and a body full of darkness.
Now, I’m sure that real, live Bible scholars would have much more to say about this passage, but I just wanted to remark on one little facet that God showed me today, and it is this: Jesus is the Light. I know that’s not profound; you’ve probably heard it before. But in this context, it means everything.
In the first verse, it’s an external factor that would prevent you from seeing the light: the lamp is hidden under a basket (which seems rather dangerous to me anyway.) But in the rest of the passage, there’s an internal factor that keeps you from seeing the light: your own eyes, in this case representing your spiritual perception.
Think of your eye as a window into your body. If the window is clear, the light can come through and illuminate you. It is true, pure, unpolluted light. But if the window is clouded and dirty, any light that comes in will be dingy and tainted. If you’re used to looking through dirty windows, you won’t even notice that the light coming through them isn’t pure. You’ll think your semi-darkness is light. There is a conclusion to be drawn here about our need for an objective standard for truth and beauty, but I’ll save that for another day.
If you’re used to looking through dirty windows, you won’t even notice that the light coming through them isn’t pure. You’ll think your semi-darkness is light.
What seemed important to me this morning is that none of these conditions affects the light itself. My dirty window doesn’t make the sun dimmer. My belief or lack of belief in God does not change His essence. My skewed perception or lack of faith only prevents me from perceiving and enjoying Him myself. I want to make sure that I’m keeping my light on a table so everyone can see it, but I also want to make sure my perception of the Light is pure. The only way to do that is constantly to check my beliefs against the Word. When the Sun starts looking dim to me, I know it’s my window that needs to be cleaned.
Because the Light is going to do what He does best: He’s gonna shine.
One Comment on “I’m Gonna Let It Shine”
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That’s awesome to see how Jesus’ analogies were so perfect for the applications and so relatable. Even the idea that the eye is the health of the body is something scientist have discovered much later. They should have just read Luke 11.
That passage and your thoughts were convicting. I don’t want the light of Jesus to be hindered by the dirty windows to my soul. Darkness can so easily seep in if we don’t keep the light coming in. There’s so many easy ways to do it: reading, praying, and meditating, but just like any real windows if we are too lazy to clean them they will always distort the pure light shining through them. Thanks for the post. It was enlightening! 😉