Acts 9:3 As he neared Damascus on his journey, suddenly a light from heaven flashed around him.

Light has a number of functions, and they aren’t all comfortable. Someone asleep in a dark room is hardly pleased if a bright light is suddenly turned on! Even if we aren’t asleep, sudden light in the middle of darkness can be painful to our eyes. The light of God’s truth can be like that, and that’s why some people run from it. As Jesus said, they prefer the darkness. (John 3:19) When sufficiently focused, light becomes a knife, as in a surgical laser. Hebrews says it is sharper than any two-edged sword, penetrating even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow. (Hebrews 4:12) When we need spiritual surgery, there’s nothing better, but even the thought of it can be frightening. Saul had a particularly hard shell of self-righteousness that needed to be cut off of him, and the light of God was up to the task. It wasn’t at all comfortable for Saul at the time, but later he was enormously grateful for it. All of us can benefit from spiritual surgery, allowing God to cut off of and out of us things that hinder our life in Christ. Likewise, light of the right wavelength sterilizes, killing harmful bacteria. We should not shrink from it, but rather choose to walk in the light at all times, so that we may enjoy the spiritual health God intends for us.

I must be careful to welcome the light myself, and as a pastor I am to be encouraging people to do likewise. Though I am often used as a conduit for the light, I must never forget that I am not the source of the light, any more than a fiber optic generates the light that passes through it. As God’s light passes through me, I need to let it burn out of me every impurity that would color or distort it, so that it may do its work in all purity, love, and holiness.

Father, help me love the light of Your truth indeed, not as a light show to entertain, but as life itself. Help me be faithful as a carrier of Your light so that people may be brought out of their darkness into the light of life in Christ, for their salvation and Your glory. Thank You. Praise God!