Light in the Darkness
For those who know me, know that I don't like colorless and "ugly-looking” places to dine or go out to. I'm very visual and like to be
surrounded by BEAUTIFUL things.
To put it into perspective, if we were going out and you asked me to choose between either great food or a great view or ambience, I'd choose the view.
My surroundings are very important to me. What I see has the ability to CAPTIVATE me, MOTIVATE me and INSPIRE me. Who I surround myself with, even more so.
And so it came as an eye-opening AWAKENING when God told me that He would bring me to the unsightliest of places. He spoke so gently, peacefully, and soundly as God the Father is, that I understood and accepted without argument or fear. Now God knows how to communicate with us and so He had been preparing my heart with this revelation months prior.
It started with an interested awareness of STREET MURALS along with the gloominess of neighborhoods that I had visited due to work and where I volunteer.
I became very aware of how grey and depressing these environments looked and felt. I thought to myself, if we could just put ONE BIG RED DOT on that plain cement wall, it would bring life to this deathly looking place. It would bring interest and maybe, just maybe interest would lend itself to people valuing where they are and then maybe that would make people care and lastly, it would bring people together to want to make a difference and turn that grey into a colorful place that CULTIVATES LIFE.
It's easy to feel OVERWHELMED with self-doubt, insecurity, fear and responsibility of THE CALL. And this had stagnated me for years. The enemy will use those weapons to prevent you from living out your purpose, making you unfulfilled and filling your life with deathly pursuits.
But remember ALL PRESSURE IS OFF of you because God has given you all that you need to answer the call and walk in your life’s purpose.
Your availability is all that is required to make you qualified.
God takes care of the rest and increasingly builds up the gift in you as you continue to walk in His will for your life.
This revelation was so detrimental to my deathly perfectionist ways. It came to a point where I knew I would die if I did not let go of the 120 pound pressure of perfectionism. So I did and I rested under the shoulders of Jesus. The pressure was now off of me because it now laid on Jesus’ shoulders. Where was I in this? I walked into His body and stood in Him. He became my covering, my armor. He was there all along, but as long as I had chosen to do things my way and in my time, I carried all the weight. When I surrendered, recognizing I can’t, I understood I needed my source, Jesus. It was not enough to have Him beside me. I needed to be IN HIM. Completely covered. Completely surrounded by my Jesus, my Lord, my Friend, my Savior, my strength, my gift-giver and “equipper”, the one who makes me relevant, accepted, worthy and fills me with love and all that I need to keep on moving upward.
So, what is your color in this world?
Do you have an abundance of something?
Then, that is what you are to give.
God wants us to fill those places that lack or are empty. And He graciously CHOOSES YOU to be the filler of that need. He created you with an ABUNDANCE to GIVE back.
Don't be selfish, insecure or fearful. Once, I too was acting sinful that way. Sadly and unbeknownst to me, I was acting like that evil servant that Jesus talks about in Matthew 25 when He tells of the parable of the talents.
But like my Dad says, "Don't hide, divide".
If God has given you an abundance of joy, He needs you in a joyless place. If He has given you an abundance of love, He needs you to fill those places that are filled with hate.
God doesn't need you to light a candle in a sunlit room.
He wants you to be that light in the darkest of places.
Where there is hate,
Bring and be love.
Where there is pain and suffering,
Bring hope.
Where there is sadness,
Bring comfort and joy.
You are the color that brightens up this world.
Imagine a world of just all black, white or grey. As an artist whose primary element of art is color, I would be depressed. You can understand that too. It would be sad, gloomy, uninteresting, and demotivating.
Well, God lit this world up miraculously stunning with colors of blue, red, purple, yellow, green and so many other hues. He added textures and it all came to life.
And God has lit up your life with colors too...
spiritual colors and He needs you to bring those colors to those black, white, and grey-only places.
Make it beautiful with the abundance of colors God has given you.
And you will see His glory shine through you.
Bible References
I praise you because
I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
...They have freely scattered their gifts to the poor;
their righteousness endures forever.
Now he who supplies seed to the sower and bread for food will also supply and increase your store of seed and will enlarge the harvest of your righteousness. You will be enriched in every way so that you can be generous on every occasion…
Anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. Anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light, and there is nothing in them to make them stumble. But anyone who hates a brother or sister is in the darkness and walks around in the darkness. They do not know where they are going, because the darkness has blinded them.