Dear Family and Friends,

Here is a short story to start your day. 

Once upon a time there lived a lamp. He was a pretty ordinary lamp – as lamps go. Like his friends, his light bulb could be dimmed or turned up really bright.

And like everyone else, he had a lampshade. But unlike the shades we normally see on tabletop lamps, everyone’s shade was black.

No matter how brightly one made his or her light shine, the black impenetrable shade would only allow the light to shine one way – on one’s self. 

For our friend, living in his world of lamps was difficult. Yes, there were lamps all lit up everywhere, but because no one could shine their light beyond themselves, the world of lamps was always a very dark place.

Because the lamps could only shine their lights on themselves, the lamps continually bumped into each other. Because they could only focus on themselves, they all struggled in relationships, using and taking advantage of each other’s lights.

Yes, the world of lights was indeed a very dark place. 

Then one day our friend saw a bright light in the distance. It was something he had never seen before.

As he drew near, he saw that the light was actually coming from a group of lamps with their lights turned to the highest setting.

But that was not what was causing the brightness. There was something strangely different yet special about this group.

Then he saw what it was. It was their lamp shades.

Each member of the group had a shade, but instead of being the normal black, their shades were white.
 
You and I are very much like our friend the lamp. The light that we give off, that shines within us, is called love. Although our light is always on, we were born with a big handicap – a black shade that directs our light only onto ourselves.

Have you noticed that because of our fallen state, much of our light, our love, is focused on ourselves?

Our nature is to think first about satisfying our needs and our wants.

In plain language, our natural love is actually self-love. It was for this reason that Adam and Eve covered their privates. Paul gives us a graphic picture of our sinful nature in Galatians 5:19-21.

“When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, the results are very clear: sexual immorality, impurity, lustful pleasures, idolatry, sorcery, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissension, division, envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other sins like these.”

Look closely for the common thread in each of the sins mentioned above. Do you see that they all start with self-love? Can you see signs of self-love in our world today?

Like the world of our lamp friend, this was our world until that one glorious day we somehow caught a glimpse of a bright light off in the distance.

Perhaps we saw it in a person or maybe it was a group.

But once we saw it, we knew in our heart that this light was what we had been searching for all along. It was a day like no other – the day we truly saw Jesus.

His blood washed away the black stain from our lamp shades, turning it into the purest of white. The world was now in color, not shades of gray, all lit up and bright.

We found other lamps with white shades who shared their light and taught us to do the same. We discovered a whole new world called heaven on earth.

Jesus once preached, “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.” Matthew 5:14-16 

Can I encourage us to let our lights shine before others? We were talking about controlling our anger and loving our enemies.

This, my friends, is how we do it. By shining our light not on ourselves but on others like our neighbors and enemies. By loving them just as we love ourselves. 

Love may start in our hearts but let’s not hoard it to ourselves.

Let’s be counter to our culture and share our lights wherever we go.

Then perhaps one day someone will come up to us and ask, I noticed you are strangely different yet special. Where can I get a light like yours?

In love always,