Light
I want to live in an increasing measure of light:
Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.
It wasn't until recently that I started to understand what Jesus meant when He said this. He was talking about my goal...the dream of my heart...my life vision. If my eye...my gaze...is locked on Jesus, and my primary dream is to know Him more today than I did yesterday, it will fill every other part of my life with light. In the same passage He states it another way:
Matthew 6:33-34 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The biggest challenge to my goal of keeping my gaze locked on Jesus...of seeking His kingdom first...is the temptation to manage, or worse yet, worry about, everything else. Worry about the details of life...especially the future...can overwhelm me. I have a business that needs nearly constant attention, a ministry I value, three young men to raise, a wife that deserves my affection, a house that breaks, a lawn that grows, cars that have to be maintained, extended family, friendships, obligations, hopes...I could keep listing items that all vie for space in my eyes...
Just listing these few makes my head start to feel a little achy. When I start to imagine what "might happen" with any of these items individually...let alone collectively...I am on the verge of a hard drive crash within minutes. The Bible says, and my observation confirms, that most people spend a lot of time imagining a negative future that will never really happen. This drives people to give up, live in disappointment, and/or try to manage the minutia of life.
Trying to keep all these balls in the air is an un-manageable load for very long, so most people pick something to focus on that they imagine will make life better, and that thing becomes their short term desire, or their nagging disappointment...either way, it becomes their goal: "If I could just meet the right girl...If God would let me do this full time...if I could win the lottery...if I could just get a better job...if I had a car that didn't need fixing....or a place that was my own...if my ex would get out of my life..." fill in the blank.
The hope of these things happening becomes the light of our eyes...what we begin walking toward.
People go where they are looking. This is true in the physical realm and in our hearts.
I learned this principle when I used to mow lawns for a living. If you want to cut in straight lines, you can't look down in front of you. Most people naturally look down at the last row they just cut and try to keep the front wheel just inside the last row. This will almost never produce straight lines. The trick is to pick a spot in the distance, stare at it, and start walking. You will cut laser-straight lines if you develop the discipline to do this...but it takes discipline...it takes a desire to have straight lines that is greater than a desire to just do it the way the is easiest, which is to look right in front of you.
The Bible says this same idea is actually a truth of life. If I want a laser straight line into success...into joy...into peace...into greatness, and purpose, and satisfaction that will last forever...there is only one spot in the distance to keep my gaze locked on. There is one perfect goal everyone was designed to keep their gaze on. This goal is the source of life. The goal the Bible describes as the only good one is a person, who, if I will lock my stare on Him, will actually fill every part of my life with light. Because He IS the only light there is:
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Jesus is the light of the world. Literally. This isn't some spiritual concoction of thought. This isn't symbolic. The Bible says that God will literally outlast the sun and someday will be THE only light. He will shame the sun at His appearance (Isaiah 24:23). Mankind was made to live in direct view of His glory...His light. In the light of His glory there is love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness...when the light of His glory touches you someday in the New Jerusalem you will feel actual love radiating on your skin 1,000 times more warm and comforting than the sun on a clear summer day. Because of the fall...because man said "no" to God's perfect leadership...His glory became too bright for us to dwell in...in our fallen state it would kill us:
I Timothy 6:16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
But you don't have to wait for eternity to allow the rays of His glory to start touching you. It has just become a little harder than it was intended to be. What was automatic for Adam and Eve became a fight for us: to keep our gaze locked on the only light...the most beautiful one in creation. Until we get bodies like His...infinite in capacity to be in His glory...we have to work a little to lock our gaze on an invisible Jesus. If we want to taste heaven now, we have to fight the temptation, the worry, and the distraction and fill our eyes with the only true light. We have to turn our goal from success in the things we are tempted to manage... and train our desire on getting closer to Jesus.
The whole world will basically disagree with this philosophy, if not with their words, then with their deeds...what they do with their time and their money.
The world believes in balance. Even most people that go to church have bought into balance...a balanced diet of what the world says is good and responsible and what God says actually brings security and life. You can't take your cues from what everyone else does, because most don't really believe in living obsessed with knowing Jesus more and spending their desire on Him. But, then again, most people live in some version of disappointment about life, too.
The truth is, the distractions that vie for our attention are sent from the thief to steal life...to steal satisfaction and peace. The Bible is clear that dying to trying to manage my life, and giving all my attention to getting to know Jesus and what He desires is really the way TO life...abundantly...the problem is the enemy manipulates the world value system to keep this from being obvious.
Putting all my eggs in one basket is what the Bible instructs me to do. Putting all my weight...all my desire on Jesus brings me more of everything else in the right balance. This is true because God loves me more than I love myself. He is trustworthy and knows the nuances of the life He made. He is perfectly powerful to bring all things to pass. He is literally the source of life...the more I reach for Him, the more life I will have!
Luke 9:24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
Matthew 6:22 “The lamp of the body is the eye. If therefore your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light.
It wasn't until recently that I started to understand what Jesus meant when He said this. He was talking about my goal...the dream of my heart...my life vision. If my eye...my gaze...is locked on Jesus, and my primary dream is to know Him more today than I did yesterday, it will fill every other part of my life with light. In the same passage He states it another way:
Matthew 6:33-34 But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these things shall be added to you. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own things. Sufficient for the day is its own trouble.
The biggest challenge to my goal of keeping my gaze locked on Jesus...of seeking His kingdom first...is the temptation to manage, or worse yet, worry about, everything else. Worry about the details of life...especially the future...can overwhelm me. I have a business that needs nearly constant attention, a ministry I value, three young men to raise, a wife that deserves my affection, a house that breaks, a lawn that grows, cars that have to be maintained, extended family, friendships, obligations, hopes...I could keep listing items that all vie for space in my eyes...
Just listing these few makes my head start to feel a little achy. When I start to imagine what "might happen" with any of these items individually...let alone collectively...I am on the verge of a hard drive crash within minutes. The Bible says, and my observation confirms, that most people spend a lot of time imagining a negative future that will never really happen. This drives people to give up, live in disappointment, and/or try to manage the minutia of life.
Trying to keep all these balls in the air is an un-manageable load for very long, so most people pick something to focus on that they imagine will make life better, and that thing becomes their short term desire, or their nagging disappointment...either way, it becomes their goal: "If I could just meet the right girl...If God would let me do this full time...if I could win the lottery...if I could just get a better job...if I had a car that didn't need fixing....or a place that was my own...if my ex would get out of my life..." fill in the blank.
The hope of these things happening becomes the light of our eyes...what we begin walking toward.
People go where they are looking. This is true in the physical realm and in our hearts.
I learned this principle when I used to mow lawns for a living. If you want to cut in straight lines, you can't look down in front of you. Most people naturally look down at the last row they just cut and try to keep the front wheel just inside the last row. This will almost never produce straight lines. The trick is to pick a spot in the distance, stare at it, and start walking. You will cut laser-straight lines if you develop the discipline to do this...but it takes discipline...it takes a desire to have straight lines that is greater than a desire to just do it the way the is easiest, which is to look right in front of you.
The Bible says this same idea is actually a truth of life. If I want a laser straight line into success...into joy...into peace...into greatness, and purpose, and satisfaction that will last forever...there is only one spot in the distance to keep my gaze locked on. There is one perfect goal everyone was designed to keep their gaze on. This goal is the source of life. The goal the Bible describes as the only good one is a person, who, if I will lock my stare on Him, will actually fill every part of my life with light. Because He IS the only light there is:
John 1:1-5 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through Him, and without Him nothing was made that was made. In Him was life, and the life was the light of men. And the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness did not comprehend it.
Jesus is the light of the world. Literally. This isn't some spiritual concoction of thought. This isn't symbolic. The Bible says that God will literally outlast the sun and someday will be THE only light. He will shame the sun at His appearance (Isaiah 24:23). Mankind was made to live in direct view of His glory...His light. In the light of His glory there is love, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, gentleness...when the light of His glory touches you someday in the New Jerusalem you will feel actual love radiating on your skin 1,000 times more warm and comforting than the sun on a clear summer day. Because of the fall...because man said "no" to God's perfect leadership...His glory became too bright for us to dwell in...in our fallen state it would kill us:
I Timothy 6:16 who alone has immortality, dwelling in unapproachable light, whom no man has seen or can see, to whom be honor and everlasting power. Amen.
But you don't have to wait for eternity to allow the rays of His glory to start touching you. It has just become a little harder than it was intended to be. What was automatic for Adam and Eve became a fight for us: to keep our gaze locked on the only light...the most beautiful one in creation. Until we get bodies like His...infinite in capacity to be in His glory...we have to work a little to lock our gaze on an invisible Jesus. If we want to taste heaven now, we have to fight the temptation, the worry, and the distraction and fill our eyes with the only true light. We have to turn our goal from success in the things we are tempted to manage... and train our desire on getting closer to Jesus.
The whole world will basically disagree with this philosophy, if not with their words, then with their deeds...what they do with their time and their money.
The world believes in balance. Even most people that go to church have bought into balance...a balanced diet of what the world says is good and responsible and what God says actually brings security and life. You can't take your cues from what everyone else does, because most don't really believe in living obsessed with knowing Jesus more and spending their desire on Him. But, then again, most people live in some version of disappointment about life, too.
The truth is, the distractions that vie for our attention are sent from the thief to steal life...to steal satisfaction and peace. The Bible is clear that dying to trying to manage my life, and giving all my attention to getting to know Jesus and what He desires is really the way TO life...abundantly...the problem is the enemy manipulates the world value system to keep this from being obvious.
Putting all my eggs in one basket is what the Bible instructs me to do. Putting all my weight...all my desire on Jesus brings me more of everything else in the right balance. This is true because God loves me more than I love myself. He is trustworthy and knows the nuances of the life He made. He is perfectly powerful to bring all things to pass. He is literally the source of life...the more I reach for Him, the more life I will have!
Luke 9:24 For whoever desires to save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will save it.
John 10:10 The thief does not come except to steal, and to kill, and to destroy. I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.
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