For a couple years now I have been obsessed with being light in darkness. The imagery is strong and powerful and the very thought of it brings excitement throughout my body. In fact, writing the very contrasting words just now made me a little giddy.
I imagine myself as this beaming force walking down inner city Houston, Dangerous Minds style, and people are just blinded by light rays that hit them in their eyes. This imagery has been the source of many excited conversations, my passion for being Michelle Pfeiffer, and living in this vivid city of Houston.
This brings me to another fascination of mine- John the Baptist. In my head, JTB is thi incredibly passionate soul who has a gigantic beard and lives in the wilderness- truly sone with nature- because God has called him to be there. He is eclectic and artsy and perhaps even throws some incredibly organic pots while he dwells outside of society in the woods.
So with these two fascinations combined, I have gotten so excited about being this JTB-esque beaming light source for Houston and the world, and have even gotten my students to rap about atom structures to ensure that Michelle is a part of that identity. But of course, because God is so gracious and loving (and a little too honest for my comfort) I realized that there was something off about my aspirations, and God's word revealed exactly what that was.
I was taking notes on a Mark Driscoll sermon (yes I take notes and yes I have a tab in my note taking binder entitled 'Mark Driscoll') and I was listening to him preach on Jesus as the light of the world. It hit me. Jesus is the light in the world, the light that the darkness does not understand, and we as Christians try so hard to create our own light, that we lose sight of Jesus and all the work that he actually did and we focus on our own work. The reality is, WE are not the light, but Jesus is and our job is to REFLECT that light, not create it!
Well, being the nerd that I am and having the fascination that I do with nature, I immediately thought up a brand new analogy...just stay with me. The Earth rotates on its own axis while at the same time it is revolving around the sun, which is giving its light to the Earth. In fact, the Sun is the source of all energy and cyclical systems on Earth. While all of this is happening, the Earth has a moon that is revolving around the Earth. When we look up at the moon, we perhaps assume that the moon is similar to a star in that it produces its own light and shines down on Earth at night. BUT! It does not! The moon makes no light whatsoever, it ONLY reflects the light directly from the Sun down onto the Earth- that is its only job so that no matter how amazed we may be at the cycles of the moon, all of the fascination can only be attributed to the Sun.
Thus, I conclude, I am a moon. While I may have been a bit disappointed that I don't have beams of light shining from me or am not actually Michelle Pfeiffer, I am excited (although excited does not accurately depict my emotion) that I am a moon to serve to reflect the light, power, and grace of Jesus and without Jesus and his light, we would be nothing.
John 1: 1-9
In the beginning was the Word (Jesus) and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things came into being through him, and apart from Him, nothing came into being that has come into being. In Him was life and the life was the Light of men. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it. There came a man sent from God whose name was John. He came as a witness, to testify about the Light, so that all might believe through him. He was not the Light, but he came to testify about the light. There was the true Light which, coming into the world, enlightens every man.
The beautiful part is that I share community with John the Baptist. No matter how many years have passed, we are both reflecting the glorious light of Jesus to the world because John too is a moon- a big beautiful bearded moon.
