Light of Love

Then Jesus spoke to them again saying, "I am the Light of the World; he who follows me will not walk in darkness, but will have the Light of life."  John 8:12

When I plug in a lamp, electricity flows through the cord up to the switch next to the bulb.  The switch blocks the flow until I flip it to the on position and then flows freely to make the bulb glow and light up the room.  The switch makes all the difference in the world.

It is the same with the Light of God's love.  It flows through me, but there is the switch of sin that blocks it from the bulb of manifestation in me.  When I flip the sin off of me through confession and forgiveness, it turns His love loose to flow freely through my smile, my eyes, my actions; everything about me will light up with His love and others will not be able to miss it.  The moment I allow sin on board, it jumps on that switch and turns the light of His love off.  When I allow anger, hurts, jealousies, etc. to be entertained, that switch becomes heavier and more difficult to move.  When I fall on my knees and deliberately, through faith cast them off and give them to Father God, the Light comes back on.  It is not my light, but His.  It flows through me, but will remain at a standstill as long as I refuse to let it loose.

Yesterday, in Sunday School we were discussing Jonah and how much he hated the Ninevites.  Even after going through being tossed into the sea, being trapped in seaweed and nearly drowning, being swallowed by a great fish and thrown up right at the foot of the city he was supposed to preach to in the first place, he still harbored that hatred.  I guess he thought that if he simply ran through the town quickly shouting their need for repentance that they would think him a raving lunatic and disregard him.  In the pit of his stomach though, he knew God didn't really need him to say those words for the Ninevites.  The Ninevites needed to hear them, but God could have used anyone to say them.  God needed Jonah to let go of the hatred so the Light of God's love could shine through him to a dying world.  Instead, Jonah went up on the hillside, hoping to see the destruction of Nineveh.  He did not get his wish, because they repented.  Rather than rejoicing that their lives had been turned around, Jonah became angry and said, "Ah, Lord, was this not what I said when I was still in my country?  Therefore I fled previously to Tarshish; for I know that You are a gracious and merciful God, slow to anger and abundant in lovingkindness, One who relents for doing harm.  Therefore now, O Lord, please take my life from me, for it is better for me to die than to live!"  Then the Lord said, "Is it right for you to be angry?"

God gives Jonah one more lesson through a vine and reminds him that Jonah didn't create the vine, but had pity on it.  Shouldn't he then have pity on the thousands of people in Nineveh that he hadn't created either and that were dying like the vine?  God doesn't tell us if Jonah got it or not.  I hope he did.  I hope when I get to heaven to be able to sit down with him and have him tell all about how God taught him that day and how he rejoiced in being set free from the sin of hatred so God's Love Light could shine through him. 

Lord, may I learn to hate sin so much that I flip the switch before it has a chance to settle on it and make it heavy.  Shine Your Light of Love through me to a world lost in darkness.  May it ever be so.