From the Lamps

Let me just get this out of the way: this post is not about being the light of the world. It's not about evangelism at all. I know what the title makes you think. But sometimes you need a flashlight pointed at yourself before you need a lamp stand. 

The light bulb in my snazzy chevron lamp on my nightstand burnt out last week. As did 3 of my 5 bulbs in my floor lamp and all but one of the bulbs over my bathroom mirror.

So here's a list (who doesn't love lists?) of the things I've learned from my lamps this week. (And by this week I mean like a month ago when I wrote this post.)

1. Shadows get a lot scarier with one light bulb than with five. The yellow on my bathroom walls went from looking like sunshine to looking like sketchy motel.
2. Changing light bulbs can be dangerous. Apparently if you twist too hard they shatter in your hand and you end up bleeding all over your How to Train Your Dragon bandaids. 
3. Going to bed early is not nearly as enjoyable without a lamp. It means no late night reading and a lot more sitting in the dark over-thinking every decision you've ever made.

That was the funny part of the post. I hope you enjoyed it. Now let's dive in. 

Here's what I really learned from my lamps this week. 

1. Community matters. Yes, there are a lot of things that are just between you and God, and time alone with Him is important to your relationship with Him. But without people around you that are seeking Christ, you get burnt out. Discouraged. It's a lot harder to radically follow Christ without reminders that other people are doing that, too. No community is just as dangerous as bad community. It's easier to tell when your friends are pushing you down the wrong path than to realize when you've wandered down the wrong path alone. That being said, the company you keep is typically the direction you're going. Yes, we're supposed to love all people because Christ came for the sick and broken, but if you're only around those who are walking in darkness, it gets a lot harder to remember what the light is like. More light is better.
2. Change is painful-and necessary. If you're walking in the wrong direction, no amount of good thinking is going to make it right. You have to turn around. More than just deciding where you're walking to, you have to make sure that you're walking away from the things that got you stuck on the wrong path in the first place. C.S. Lewis said in The Great Divorce, "If we insist on keeping Hell (or even earth) we shall not see Heaven: if we accept Heaven we shall not be able to retain even the smallest and most intimate souvenirs of Hell." Following Christ means ditching all the things that He says to get rid of, which is much easier said than done. The things in our lives aren't always bad in themselves, but James says we can't serve two masters, and if our phones, our shows, our friends, or ourselves are eating all of our time, what's really important to us? We can have all these things, but when we think we can have them all and still grow closer to God, we're fooling ourselves. Growth involves moving, and we can't move two directions at once. 
3. Darkness doesn't lead to clarity; only light can do that. I have this nasty addiction to trying to solve all of my own problems on my own. The problem is, I don't have the answers. I don't know how to do this best. I screw up, and no amount of thinking about a problem or messing around with it is going to fix it. I need an outside perspective, and there's only One who actually does have all the info-the One who wrote our days before we took our first breath. He can handle your problems. He can handle mine. He sees it all so naturally He knows how to fix it. Your heart will lie to you and your mind will run into roadblocks but He is Truth itself and He never meets a dead end. And friends? He cares. He wants to help. He is eternally invested in us, and He is devoted to taking us down the right path. We can trust Him. 

I can write these things because I've gotten them all wrong at some point or another. I've messed it all up, and He's still working on me, but little by little the light is starting to filter in. I'm trusting in the promise that He who started this work in me will be faithful to complete it.