Darkness

My dear wife and I usually avoid restaurants late at night.  Frist of all, the dinner menu is more expensive than the lunch menu.  And secondly, we have to get up at 4:15 am to be at dialysis at 5 am.  Yikes!  But a month ago we were using a Red Lobster gift card in the evening.  So, when we walked in, I almost stumbled because the lighting was so dim (they call that the ambiance).  There were just a few lights on the ceiling with only a single, forty-watt bulb hanging over our table.  I could read the wattage because it was so dim that I could look directly at the bulb.  But I noticed that after a few minutes, I began to get used to the darkness.  And I thought, “There’s a lesson in this.”  Paul said in Ephesians 5:9&11, “For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and righteousness and truth; And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them.”  All too often, we as Christians want to be liked by the pagan world in which we live.  But we are called by God to be salt and light.  And here in this passage we are called to “reprove” the dark world in which we live.  That word “reprove” is like a strict schoolteacher who corrects and carefully watches over her students.  Hey, the world crucified Jesus.  What makes us think that the world will like us, His followers?!  Let’s get used to being different … for Jesus.  Let’s NOT get used to the darkness.  Let’s be the light as Jesus was the light.