Lighten Up

LIGHTEN UP

Every so often I have the privilege to drive the 36 hours out to Jackson Hole, WY and camp for a few days.  There, at Jenny Lake, right at the base of the Grand Tetons the sky seems bluer, the air cleaner and anything we cook over the fire seems to taste better.  After dinner we let the fire die down to ashes so it doesn’t give off anything but heat, then we lean our chairs back and wait for the show to commence.  The show I speak of would be the setting of the sun and the revealing of the stars. 

There are a dozen or so stars within 10 light years of us.  To my theologically oriented mind that doesn’t mean much, but I do understand that the closest stars are still very far away.  Yet I am able to see the light from those stars, and what is even better, there are stars that are hundreds and thousands of light years away from earth and I am still able to see the light that comes/came from them.  However dim their light may be, in the dark night sky I find it only takes a little bit of light to be seen.

Jesus said that He was the light.  Why is it that some are still in darkness?  Why is it that some are unable to see what appears to be so obvious to others?  In Jesus’ encounter with the Pharisees in John 8 they just don’t seem to be able to see the light.  In fact, as so often happened with the Pharisees, they completely misunderstood what Jesus was teaching them.  They accused Jesus of lying, thought Jesus was going to commit suicide, and basically had no understanding that all of their study of the Old Testament should have prepared them for and revealed to them that Jesus was from the Father and was the Messiah they had been waiting for.  Their problem: they were in darkness.

I remember being in darkness.  Thinking I had the spiritual answers my heart longed to know.  Thinking I understood who Jesus was and what He wanted me to do. But I was in darkness.  Not until Jesus opened my eye and His light filled my life and lit my path was I even capable of grasping His great love and sacrifice for me. 

When did the light break into your life.  Did it happen in the darkest of times?  Did you think you had come to the end of yourself?  “I am the light of the world.  Whoever follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life” (John 8:12).

Check out the sermon the Sunday on John 8:12-30.