If you’ve been walking this journey with me you know that we’ve been challenged to step out of a safe zone and give up our preferred little tin and golden gods in favor of the one True God who brings us out of a sometimes dark comfort and into the light of a Truth that promises love, salvation and eternal life. We’ve discovered, however, that the safety of the dark allows us to hide our faults and our struggles. It allows us to avoid challenges and tension. We can just relax there with the god we’ve fashioned and feel as if we’ve got it all under control.
The article that inspired this Lenten blog journey for me is called Idolatry Is the Most Seductive Sin in Town, by Kate Bowler. (Sojourners Magazine - February 14, 2022) Like its title infers, the control that comes with fashioning one’s own idol helps make our lives easy and very manageable. As Bowler says, “We are not apostates. We are idolaters. We fall in love with the things that are almost true. We start taking our gold and pouring it into a cast that we can shape with our own hands, one that inspires us and challenges us, but is not, necessarily, given to us by the one true God.”
And that’s where the light comes in. Evil hates the light because it exposes its works to be false (cf. John 3:17-21), but the Truth loves the light as its joy comes with morning light (cf. Ps. 30:5) showing the world the true God and the good works that are done through the work of our hands. Also consider that the light brings judgment, weighing the value of all that we have, all of our possessions, all of our wants, all of our needs, and all of our dreams. This is not a damning judgment, but rather a point where we all must take stock in what we have versus what we’re called to do.
In John’s Gospel we hear Jesus call his disciples saying, “Whoever serves me must follow me.” (John 12:26) In Luke’s Gospel Jesus says to a rich man, “sell all that you have and distribute it to the poor… Then come, follow me.” (Luke 18: 18,22) And Matthew’s witness of Jesus adds,“Whoever wishes to come after me must deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me. (Matthew 16:24). So if we are able to take stock in all that we have, we must do so to consider its true place in our lives, asking ourselves the practical question, “Do I really need this?” For the light of Christ will reveal those things that weigh us down or hold us back, so let it go! Christ will enlighten our way and all that God’s plan has in store for us, so pick up that cross!
The promise is this… The brightness that is eternal life comes to those who trust and follow, for “the hour has come for the Son of Man to be glorified. Amen, amen, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls to the ground and dies, it remains just a grain of wheat; but if it dies, it produces much fruit. Whoever loves his life loses it, and whoever hates his life in this world will preserve it for eternal life. Whoever serves me must follow me, and where I am, there also will my servant be.” (John 12: 23-26)
Oh Lord, let me always follow your light.
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