33â€Nobody lights a lamp in order to hide it, but rather to put it on a lampstand, so those who enter can see the light.
34Your eye is the body’s lamp. So if your eye is healthy, your whole body will be well lit. But if it is unhealthy, then your body will be darkened. 35Be careful that the light that is in you isn’t actually darkness. 36If then your whole body is well-lit, and doesn’t have any part that is dark, all will be lighted as when the bright beam of a lamp lights you up.â€
Luke 11:33-36 (Henry Neufeld Translation)
I don’t turn on a light and then cover it with a blanket. I put it on a table between the couch and the chair so that Henry and I can both use it to read or play Sudoku. Light is not just a ‘theory’. It is to be a useful and used part of my life.
It is with my eyes that I bring information into my life. It isn’t the only way but it is probably the most used way that I gain information. If I bring useful information into my life, my life will be constructive and positive. That doesn’t mean that I avoid reality. It is that I choose to bring healthy information into my life. I see world events as opportunities for prayer, not as a barometer of my future. I look for ways to improve my internal health not focus on violence as a 60 minute entertainment fix. Sex is about love not about instant gratification that is beyond my control.
As I sit in the break room where I work, a day rarely goes by that someone doesn’t discuss a TV show that I have never seen or rave about a movie that I had not even considered watching. Many might think that my eyesight is narrow and lacking a broad enough scope or even balance. For me it is a very practical consideration that I only have so many minutes in the day and I am carefully choosing how I fill that time. I have also become sensitive that how I spend my time effects …how I spend my time! It is that old saying that “garbage in produces garbage out!†If I fill my mind with sad and destructive ‘stuff’ then my mind replays and rewinds that information, leaving my thoughts stuck in a pit! If I receive encouraging and uplifting ‘stuff’ then my mind dwells on those thoughts and new possibilities and opportunities seem to spark from this overflow!
Very often this passage of Scripture can be seen as so spiritual that the practical, basic premise is missed. We consider how we should look with our spiritual eyes and grasp the deep ‘light’ of God and forget that within a day we take in gallons of more surface information that can drown our spiritual eyes in darkness before they even get a chance to open! Yes, it is good to consider how God may be moving in this moment of my life but let me not look so far into the heaven-lies that I miss how Jesus is walking right in this moment!
For every hour that I spend crying out to God to reveal Himself, may I spend two hours thanking Him for the numerous ways He blesses me with good health and sunshine. For every moment that I receive a vision of God’s plan, may I spend minutes just being obedient without demanding first an explanation.
“You are the light of the world. A city 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 men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.†Matthew 5:14-16 (NIV)
