I couldn’t believe my eyes. I don’t think I am overstating it to say I was astonished. A bit annoyed and embarrassed as well.
I had just dry mopped my mudroom floor, my usual housekeeping chore after breakfast. Setting my dust mop aside, I opened the back door on my way out to the mailbox. I blinked my eyes. Early morning sunshine streamed into my cabin through the bare, winter branches of the towering oaks along my driveway, illuminating the faux wood planks at my feet. I was temporarily blinded by its brilliance.
Then I gasped. Dirt, dust balls, hair, and crumbs suddenly appeared like magic in the revealing sunlight—right where I had just cleaned. Are you kidding me? How had I missed all this disgusting crud? Where did it come from?
As much as I hate to admit it, it must have been there in my gloomy hall all along. I just missed it.
It simply wasn’t apparent until there was light.
Now I live in the woods and, even with lots of windows, my home is pretty dark and shadowed. I wondered how many other floors in my house were this messy and repulsive.
I grabbed my Swiffer wet jet and got busy. What a terrible housekeeper! Maybe I needed to wear a head lamp when I did my chores.
It seemed my key to a clean home wasn’t just my effort. It was light.
Scrubbing away, it occurred to me that there was another quite obvious lesson to be learned. The key to a clean heart, each person’s inner control center, was the very same thing.
Light.
I can’t speak for you, but on so many lazy, self-focused and/or rebellious days, I want anything but light shining in me, probing my innermost me. I don’t want to see, nor do I want anyone else to see, the ugly pet sins I cherish or the dreadful seeds of doubt or bitterness or envy or guilt that have taken root inside me. I want to hide the appalling false saviors that sit on my heart’s throne and the elusive phantom of pride that defiles my very being. Dirty. Messy. It’s really true that men love darkness rather than light. Why? Because their deeds are evil and wicked. So are their thoughts. And mine too. I try to hide them. Do I really think my Father doesn’t see and know?
Other days, when the light is brilliant and I see, like when I am hearing God’s Word preached on Sunday morning or I turn on a favorite pastor’s radio message or when I pick up my dusty Bible, I wonder how all this repulsive junk got in me. I tell myself that I have been sweeping and mopping, working hard to keep myself looking clean, feeling clean. But just like the crud in the shadows of my mudroom, I have missed what was really there. I have been fumbling with no light. What a waste of time and energy.
I need light to see. I need it shining all the time.
Psalm 119:130 says, The unfolding of your words give light; it imparts understanding to the simple.
Ah, God’s Word is the answer. Of course. God’s Word gives light as I “unfold” or read its truths. It also gives me understanding.
Psalm 119:105 says, Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.
As I read God’s Word, it becomes a candle shedding light in the darkness of me, showing me where my next steps should go, revealing the traps, the signposts, the potholes, the bandits, the detours, and the road blocks along the way. It also illuminates ugliness and brokenness and sin I need to confess and take to my Father for help, healing, and restoration.
God’s Word is the inescapable light I need to be all God has designed me to be, to accomplish His very personal and special purposes for me. I don’t want it blocked, crowded out, ignored or covered up.
Paul Tripp says it this way in his devotional, Wednesday’s Word, Does the Bible Influence You Enough?
…I have to say it: many Christians, maybe even you, don’t always live as if [God’s Word] is the most foundational source of wisdom in their life. Yes, we profess that we believe in the doctrine of Scripture—the doctrinal foundation upon which every other doctrine stands—but it probably doesn’t change our everyday living to that extent that it should.
I know it doesn’t always for me.
Sadly, many of us do not spend daily time in our Bibles. Many of us are not avid students of God’s word. Many of us are only fed from it for one hour each week as we gather together for Sunday worship. Yet, we spend hours and hours allowing our hearts and minds to be influenced and shaped by the internet, social media, and political commentary on TV. Functionally, these voices of influence are often more authoritative than Scripture.
If we deeply believed in the doctrine of Scripture, wouldn’t we be looking for every opportunity to share its glorious message with others? Wouldn’t that quiet time, when you separate yourself from other people and other responsibilities, and it’s just you, your Lord, and his word, be your favorite part of your day?
If you, like me, are feeling convicted, the solution isn’t to read God’s word in a quasi-guilty, sense-of-duty, this-is-what-good-Christians-do sort of way. No, we always should approach our Bible reading and study with heartfelt joy.
“Great are the works of the Lord, studied by all who delight in them.” (Psalm 111:2)“They received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.” (Acts 17:11)
Yes, we approach God’s word with commitment, but we do so because we are grateful, excited, and hungry. We find him there, we find his saving grace there, we find astounding wisdom there, we find guidance for our daily living there, and there we find hope to do it all again tomorrow.
Every time you open the book, pray that God would grant us open eyes and a joyful, grateful, eager, and tender heart.
Pray that the light of His Word shines in you, revealing what needs attention inside, guiding you in the way you should go.
Won’t you make 2022 the year you quit stumbling in the dark, ignoring the dirt, being uncertain of your path ahead? Won’t you make this the year you resolve to walk in the light of His Word every single day?
I want to.
It’s a better use of my time than dust mopping in the dark, don’t you think?
—Eileen Hill
