“Make sure that the light you think you have is not actually darkness. If you are filled with light, with no dark corners, then your whole life will be radiant, as though a floodlight were filling you with light.” – Luke 11:36

So I asked a question Tuesday morning in the men’s Bible study (it’s what I do, I just ask questions then then the guys talk about them intelligently, and everyone thinks I’m teaching!). The question is one of my go-to favorites when I interview someone for a news article and it goes something like this:

What gets you up in the morning? What floats your boat about your work… your life… your faith… this new day?

Or – as Billy put it Tuesday morning in response to the scripture:

“What lights you up?“

We are moving through the story of the life of Jesus as told in the four gospels. This week the focus was Luke 11. Jesus challenges his friends, and the Pharisees (and us) to make sure that we are “charging up” with light. It is, as always with Jesus, both a challenge and an invitation.

I could not help but think of the sour and bitter testimony presented by so many who claim the name “Christian.” But Jesus does not work in our lives so that we can complain all the time, or put other people down, or spew vitriol and negativity and judgment. No, Jesus is in the business of lighting us up!

Jesus also makes it clear that his quality of light always leaves evidence: “then your whole life will be radiant,” he says.

Please, when you are tempted to go off again about something you are against, stop. Stop and then think about what you are for. What lights you up? What floats your boat? What gets you up in the morning? What gives you a clear sense of joy and purpose at the beginning of another new day?

Jesus wants to fill us with light. Then, he says, “your whole life will be radiant!”

So let’s shine already! – DEREK