This Little Light of Mine

    This world is a funny place. So filled with darkness and pain, yet there's so much beauty and joy. The sorrows are too many and too great, and yet the smallest things like a setting sun, or a budding rose can show you the greatness of God. That He's in control. You can read the news and easily get depressed, thinking about how the world is so messed up! But then see the innocence of a child and know.... there's still something good.
     There's a place called Lamu, and as you may have heard, the darkness there is great. The population is something like 98% Islamic, and there's a spiritual heaviness that rests on that island. You see the ladies dressed in black. You hear the mosques at all times at night. You hear stories of abuse and divorce. You look for God in such a place, and you wonder..... where's the light? But there's a saying that I came to know as true when I went to Lamu, and it says: When it's darkest, God's light shines brightest. Amidst the thick darkness that covers Lamu like a blanket, the light that is there, is so brilliantly light. It's like when a prisoner is used to seeing the same four, blank walls for years and years, and is finally released. When he goes outside, and sees the richly blue sky, and the beautiful green trees, he doesn't take it for granted, but every color and sight is... meaningful. In Lamu, every prayer made, every ounce of love and compassion, is... meaningful. I'm not saying that it's less meaningful everywhere else, it's just so much more obvious there. It's a perfect place to learn about the awesome power and light of God. A place to learn that we posses that power and the light inside of us. The world is a dark and sad place, but God's light shines even in the darkest of places. There's beauty. There's peace. There's grace. There's love. But it's us, His people, that are responsible to bring all that about.
    So it's up to me. I can be depressed by all that I see around me. I can listen to report after report, thinking, "This world is too far gone!" I can choose to dwell on the darkness and the pain and the hurt..... but then it would remain just the same, wouldn't it? But if I stand up, and shine the light put inside of me, be the world changer God made me to be, and tell of the freedom I received when I acknowledged Christ died for me.... maybe this world would be a different place. I don't know... just a thought. :-)