Not enough light to reach the darkest places

A few weeks ago I was reading an article in the Alliance Life called “Light for the Lost.” It was an article about the desperate need for the people who are in darkness to have the light come to them to lead them back home. The article is written from the perspective of a woman, Carol Strong, whose husband and sons had found themselves lost in the woods when nighttime fell without any light source to guide them back home. She went on to explain her concern for her loved ones, stuck out there in the dark with no light. She decided to turn on all the lights in their home to act as a beacon, asked her neighbor to turn on all the lights in their home and drive out to the edge of the woods and point the high beam in the trees hoping that they could see the light and find their way home. But they did not return. Through much effort and time spent trying to get them home, Carol’s neighbor finally went out with a high beam light to where their cries were heard, found them and lead them back home. After reading this article I immediately saw where she was heading with her point. The church’s desire is to be the beacon of light. And the church building has become the house. We “light up” the whole house in hopes that people will see the light and come to us. Our intentions are pure in wanting to be a source of light, but it’s not enough light to reach into the darkest places. In the case of Carol’s family, the beacon (the light from the house) was not what saved the family. It was the neighbor, carrying the light to her family to guide them back to safety.Carol made a challenge to Christians that it isn’t enough just to light up the house and be a beacon; we can’t expect to stay inside the church walls, shine our lights and expect people to come to us. Carol asked her husband later “Steve, why didn’t you come toward the light?” And Steve answered “It was so dark where we were that the beam couldn’t reach us. The only way for us to get off that mountain was for someone with the light to come to us.” For many people today, it is so dark in their lives that the beam from the church can’t reach them. They need someone with a high beam to go and find them, offer the light to them to guide them back home, and walk with them during the journey.