Darkness and Fire.

From The Irresistible Revolution- Shane Claiborne:


"When the darkness of our world, and all of the fears we hold in that darkness, are pierced by the light of God's love and by the possibility that God has other ideas in mind for how we are to live, something liberating happens. But there is also the danger of our becoming mesmerized by the dazzle of the light. It can be quite comfortable, like a campfire. We can crawl up into the hands of God and fall asleep in the sweet aroma and cozy warmth. And so much of the world lies in the cold, clammy darkness of human suffering, oppression, inequality. My friend John Francis Maher sings a beautiful song that whispers to the groaning masses, 'Don't let your eyes adjust to the dark.' Perhaps we could also add for those by the fire, 'Don't fall asleep in the light.'

I once heard Steve Chalke, a church leader and minister in the UK, describe a little kid stumbling across a raging house fire. As he looks around, he notices a water hose, which he quickly grabs, but then, as he frantically goes to put out the fire, he notices something else, something peculiar. All around him are fire engines with firefighters on them, but all of the firefighters are sound asleep. Now the little boy is left with a decision. He can attempt the hopeless task of trying to put out the fire by himself, or he can take that water hose and begin spraying down all of the firefighters.

The choice seems pretty clear when we see how large the inferno is in our world and how small each of our hands are. The darkness of our world will try to smother the light, so we have to surround ourselves with people who make us shine brighter."