Light and darkness have played off each other throughout our history. Life without light is, well, no life. Every living thing responds to light in a positive way. Lack of light has been dealt with in many creative ways. Darkness is good for sleeping, watching a good movie, gazing at the stars, etc, but extended darkness for humans can lead to maladies of magnitudes.
Light therapy companies have invented special lights that people use in the winter months to augment the effects of the weakened winter sun. Light depravation sickness is a real condition, especially in the northern hemisphere. But the dark is at its worst in northern Alaska. There are 2 months where the sun only creeps above the horizon a couple of hours a day. Then a couple more months of sunshine for 4 hours a day. This is dark torture at its worst.
How do the eskimos do it? They have lived for hundreds of years without electricity, enduring the dark and coming through it. What is their secret? Fire! Lots of fire. Fire from wood, fire from oil, fire from any source available. They simply light the fire, and gather around. If a trip is  needed in the dark, a fire is attached to a stick and off they go. Fire is life, and without it they perish.
Fire building is easy. Find dry kindling, then starter logs, then overnight logs. Build up enough coals, and a wet piece of wood will dry in minutes and light up the room. Let’s talk kindling. Kindling is a collection of skinny, dry, highly combustible twigs or leaves that catch a flame immediately, but are spent just as quickly. Their job is to ignite kindling a little bigger. Too much starter kindling, and you don’t develop the coals needed to ignite the larger logs. They key here is to keep moving up the log food chain until you have the coals to sustain long term fire light.
This is how God sees our faith. When we begin the journey with Jesus, we have a kindled faith that is quick to flame up, but in need of more fuel to keep going. Kindling faith is receptive to the flame, flares up quickly and is soon spent. We need to supply our faith fires with the next stage in fire building, the starter logs.
Starter logs have a certain size and width that makes them perfect for building a hot bed of coals. Placed on the hot kindling, they begin to burn, provide great light, warmth and crackle. This represents our discipline stage of our faith journey. Here we build on the faith God has given us, and settle into creating a bed of faith coals that will last through the darkest nights of life. We do this through observing the disciplines of our faith, prayer, bible reading, gathering together regularly, serving, meditation, worship, Sabbath rest, and others. These are the logs that stabilize our faith, and make facing brokenness this side of heaven possible.
When I lost my business, my income, my status, and my pride, I spun down into a very dark place. I felt betrayed, dis-respected, anxious, alone, powerless, at the end of my rope. Then God did what he does best, He sent his love my way in tiny, almost imperceptible light beams. Funny how things look so much brighter when you are in the dark. I would see the light of certain scriptures that were meant for me at this time. I would be captured by the truth of a song that I used to listen to half heartedly. I would see glimmers of hope as I pursued jobs, started businesses, and trusted God literally day by day. I learned that in the darkness, God sends people with light. Some brought the cool ember of friendship. I was bathed in God’s light of hope, love, and acceptance. This gave me strength to endure the darker moments of those times. I learned that there will be times when I am robbed of the light of life, for whatever reason, I am left in the dark without a candle. God has designed us to need each other. We become shining lights to comfort, enlighten, challenge, warn, direct, and warm each other on our journey. Here are some verses on the light. Read, reflect, and be restored to your Father of light……
Mt 4:16- Those in darkness have seen a great light
5:15- You are the light of the world
5:15- don’t light it up and cover it, Mk 4:21
Jn 1:1-9- Jesus the light and light giver
Jn 3:19- Jesus is the light, and we love dark. Why?
Jn 3:20- the answer
Jn 3:21- love living in the light
Jn 11:9-10- We need light at night or we stumble
Jn 12:35-36- Walk in the light and put your trust in the light.
Acts 26:18- Turn from darkness to light
2 Cor 4:6- His light shines in us and we shine out to the darkness
2 Cor 6:14- darkness and light cant occupy the same place.
Eph 5:8- live as people who are in the light.
