Turning on the light

Have you ever been sitting in your bedroom with the lights out and then someone comes in and flips on the lights?  You get that "AHHHHHH I'm blind! Oh the pain!!" feeling for about 10 seconds.  Normally you try to hide your eyes or duck back under the covers or scream at the child/husband who did it :-).

This past week I was sitting around and began to think about that concept and churches.  How the lost world is the dark room or darkness and we are the light (Matthew 5:14).
You can walk into a dark room and just flip on a light and it will accomplish the task of dispelling the darkness. But, it might just make people hide under the covers or run away.  And it will probably tick them off in the process.

Or....

You could slowly turned on the light, with love, compassion, and patience, waiting for their eyes to adjust.  Exposing them to truth at a pace that they can handle as the Holy Spirit moves in their lives and changes their heart.
What if, when you slowly turned on the light they knew, that you loved them and because of the relationship you had built with them, and that was the reason that you were doing things differently? What if the pace that you turned on the light allowed them to see God in a new way..... in a new light?

The message of the gospel does not change just the approach.


~Just a thought~
~LL