"Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that." - Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
The other night, I went to my garage to get something out of my toolbox. I happened to have a flashlight in my hand, and instead of flipping the light switch in my garage, I pushed the button on the flashlight and found my way to my toolbox. It wasn't much, but that small swath of light guided me to my destination. Without it, the garage was pitch black, and there were many things over which I could stumble, fall, and severely injure myself. But lucky for me, the batteries worked, the bulb came to life, and the light of that small tool drove out the darkness enough for me to see where I was going.
That got me thinking about the words of Jesus in John 8:12 - "I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
Jesus' words about Himself in this passage continue to "haunt" me. Let me explain...those of us who follow Christ read these words and celebrate that we walk in and with the Light, and as John reminds us "God is light, in Him is no darkness at all." He is our light, shining in a dark world, leading us to our ultimate destiny in Christ. Our eternal destiny is sealed forever in the Light! While that is incredibly awesome for me, what haunts me about Jesus' words is that I read them so selfishly. He isn't talking to me. The first half of verse 12 tells us who His audience was. He was talking to "the people".
He was talking to lost people.
Jesus has saved me, and for that I am forever grateful and indebted to Him. But Christianity is not about me! It's about the great commission; its about literally loving the hell out of people! And the only way I can do that is to get over myself. I have friends that are lost, and I so desperately desire for them to come to the Light by allowing Jesus into their hearts. I so desperately desire for them to experience the same Light, Life and forgiveness that I have! I want so badly to share in the love of Christ with my friends. And I am willing to do anything short of compromising the gospel to see them come to His saving grace. Because when this life is over, Jesus says something else about light and darkness: "the subjects of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth." (Matt 8:12) Then there will be no light. Complete darkness and torment...forever. But right now, the Light of the World lives inside of me, and that's why I am so doggedly determined to let Him shine, even in the darkest of places.
I WILL take the light to the darkness. I WILL take our Christian rock band to bars from time to time, regardless of what religious people think or say. I WILL meet my lost friends where they are, and I WILL love them, because God loved me when I was in darkness.
Yeah, its that important.
