Where Is Your Light Pointing?

Good morning!

I wanted to get a bit serious today about faith, love, support, mercy, indulgence, righteousness, and how we Christians should choose to act in the face of things that go against the Word of God.

There has been much discussed about the recent Supreme Court ruling on same sex marriages.  Now, I am not going to get all wrapped up in the discussion (at least not yet ;) ), but I did want to address my fellow Christians, some of which who oppose it, some who approve.

Imagine you are in a dark room.  You do not know your way at all.  You are not even sure which door you are supposed to walk through, even if you could see the doors.  You are blinded by the dark.

Picture the last time someone shone a light right in your eyes--what happened?  If it was in a dark room, then your eyes probably blinked with pain and tears.  Your eyes were not prepared for the light (insert 5th grade biology lecture about rods and cones and night vision here :D ).  You had to shut your eyes to the light.  It was too much and you wanted to turn back to the dark for comfort.

NOW, what if that person instead came up beside you and pointed the light right at the door you were supposed to walk through?  Suddenly you could see your way!  Your eyes did not burn with the harsh glare but instead the light was used to illuminate a path to the right door.  They walked with you, holding that light steady for you, and eventually you two come out of that dark room and you now can see what you were missing.  Outside of that dark room is color and beauty and joy and rest. You now can see that inside that dark room was fear and lose and loneliness.  At the time it seemed comforting, but really it was a prison.



Flash forward (ha ha ha!  FLASH forward?  See what I did there?) to the discussion on same sex marriages OR on gluttony or swindling or drunkenness or on adultery or lying on your taxes or whatever.  It does not matter what the topic is.  We know that everyone has dark rooms of sin.  We know that the Lord's way is a bright, beautiful garden --the garden of His righteousness and mercy and love that only grows in the Sonlight, and we can only enjoy it if we come out of all the dark rooms of our pet sins.

Now, it is tempting to come in with the flashlight of truth and shine it right in someone's eyes, demanding they be used to the light.  What do they do?  They turn away and retreat back in the dark, away from the onslaught, holding even more strongly onto their sin for comfort.  You did not show them the outside of the dark room, you just took bright light with you and shined it at them.  They still don't know what door to go through.  They do not even know what you look like in your heart or spirit. 


Now, imagine you link arms with them and use your light to walk them across the room to the right door of eternal salvation!  Only then will they be able to see how dark their lives and hearts really were.

I get it.  You want so much for people to do the right thing!  You know they are on the road to destruction, their souls becoming pale and diseased and anemic in the blackness of sin!  However, there is a way to show them the right door and a way that just hurts their eyes and spirits.


NOW NOW NOW let's address the other side of the coin:  the Christians who fall into the temptation of going TOO far with the idea of kindness.

Picture you are back in the dark room again with a flashlight and see someone in the dark.  You know how much it hurt their eyes to have someone shine a light in them so you feel sorry for the person.  You want them to be comfortable so you encourage them to stay where they are comfortable--in the dark.  Yes, the Lord says to come out of the darkness and into the light, but you don't want to be mean or make anyone feel badly and they really seem to like that dark, dark room of their souls.  They say they have everything they need there.  They are happy (so they think), and you are angry at those who have shined the light in their eyes, so you go even further and pretend the garden of God (His Word which blesses!) is not for them and that you support their decision to stay in darkness.

That person, though, will never learn to walk in the sun.  That person might even stick their head out the door, seeing the Son, but then will choose to live back in their dark room because you encouraged them to do so.  They will think that they are supposed to be there because it feels natural to their carnal selves (remember, EVERY sin feels good!  If it hurt and made you smell funny, no one would sin!) and you said it was ok.  They will never taste fresh cherries grown on the tree of righteousness because they will not step out of their dark room enough to do so.  They will never be able to go to the eternal fields of Heaven because they will not step out of their comfortable room enough to be able to walk on the path of righteousness with the Lord to Heaven. 

If we focus on the temporal comfort of any sin in ourselves or others, and refuse to obey the Lord (because His rules are not there to take away our fun but to give us Life to the full!), then we are lost and we are leading others into darkness.

The thing is that by not recognizing a dark room of sin for what it is, either in ourselves or in others, we are not doing anyone any favors.  The Word of God is very clear on homosexuality AND other sins (again, this is just the sin of the day, but there will be other sins that pop up in society).  We do not tell someone who is lying that it is ok to lie or encourage adultery in our friends.

So what is a Christian to do?  The same thing Jesus did.

1)  Know the Word of God
2)  Seek those in dark rooms and walk with them.
3)  Illuminate their way by walking WITH them BUT
4)  Not fall into the trap of thinking that our emotions overrule the Word of God.

Trust Him.

PS-The original idea for the flashlight analogy was one I saw on fb.  I just fleshed it out a bit, but I didn't want you to think I had come up with that fabulous analogy on my own! :)