On Being a Night Light

You can see them working their way down the cobblestone streets of Derry, they wobble their way to the taxi stands, their eyes are fixed as they seem to look right through you, they try negotiate walking in high heeled shoes, straining not to reveal more than their clothes already reveal. At the taxi stand they scan the crowd for a familiar or friendly face they can hook up with, if they can make contact, their night may not have been in vain, even if that validation is for a fleeting moment they take the bet. Soon a taxi pulls up, they fumble for some cash to hand to the driver, they take a last drag off their cigarette scan the crowd one last time, slamming the door of the taxi they disappear into the darkness of Derry. Last night I watched this scene repeated over and over again; many were very young some as young as age 14, such loss of innocence, such emptiness, such utter despair. I too was a child of the night. I knew that the darkness could cover the shortcomings of a person who was too insecure to talk to the opposite sex without the cover of alcohol and night. I hurt for those young people because I still ache over some of the choices I made in my youth, I bought the lie and paid for it with more brokenness and insecurity.

Darkness is great camouflage; it allows sin a residence and seduces us into to believing that we can get away with it but we are only lying to ourselves. The darkness covers up and endless streams of cigarettes, alcohol and meaninglessness. Darkness affords a disguise to the mess that our lives have become but the very fact that we do things in the dark; things that we would never do in the light, is telling and convicting. Night after night the search for life goes on, stumbling our way through the darkness to quote Pink Floyd “Waiting for someone or something to show you the way.”

“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) The answer to our darkness problem is simple but yet so difficult. The simplicity comes from the fact that the enemy of darkness is light to vanquish the power of darkness and the foothold that it has in our lives we must simply shine light on the problem (Psalm 119:5). We have light for our lives and a lamp unto to our paths in God’s word; we also have God’s directions for life and living The Bible. God’s word is a GPS for all who open its pages and read and heed its instructions.

The difficult part of bringing light into the darkness is that with the illumination of problems comes the responsibilities that lies with being the light. Simply put it’s easy to tell someone that they are off the pathway of life, piece of cake I can tell people all day long that they are wrong and I might add would give me a certain amount of pleasure. However, God’s word here doesn’t say be a flashlight, it says be the light. In other words we must shine, our lives cannot simply reflect God’s Love, it must be God’s Love.

In closing let me use this illustration. Bringing babies into the world is wonderful business, but there is cost to the wonderfulness. The cost comes in the form of dirty diapers, teething, sickness, broken relationships, heartaches and a multitude of difficult times. I mentioned the difficult times of child rearing to simply say; to get through these times it takes commitment, hard work and a spirit that says this is all worth it. Likewise, with loving a lost world it takes commitment and love, and as God says it must come from Him living in us saying it with our lives, that those young people are worth the toil, we have to quit just telling people that Jesus loves them, we must be ready to show them as well and for that to happen we have to become the light we are called to be.

May all your Heartbeats be Irish

patrick