“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 NIV

Part one: If you have a phone somewhere, get it. I want you to take the phone, go to a dark room, and turn on the flashlight. (Hopefully) It’s lighting up the room a bit, right?

Part two: Well now, turn on your camera and put it in selfie mode.

Part three: The flashlight turned off, right?

Part four: And not only that, but it turned off before you got to turn the camera to yourself!

What am I getting at here? I’ll break it down.

We’ll start at part one: the dark room represents the world. The flashlight represents the light that we reflect when we have Christ.

Part two: you turn to yourself, and don’t focus on shining your light.

Part three: your light turned off.

Part four: the minute you begin to focus on yourself in a self-absorbed way is the minute your light turns off.

Now what does this all mean?

Jesus told us in Matthew to let the light of Christ shine to the world, right? But we cannot shine his light while we focus on ourselves at the same time! That’s not how it works, he says this in Matthew 16:24. We must deny ourselves.

When we turn the metaphorical camera to ourselves, we are essentially putting a basket over our lamp. (Matthew 5:14-16.) And lights are not supposed to be extinguished or covered—darkness is not how we are supposed to live.

So how will you turn your flashlight back on and refocus your light?

~Willow 💛