Building Light

The world’s message is simple: You are enough. All on your own, you are enough. But that mantra fails us either because we deep down know we aren’t enough or because our self-esteem inflates and we charge through life independent of God and people. Either outcome leaves us lonely and disappointed.

So why are we working so hard to do life, to make a difference all on our own?

When I think about light, every single light humans have ever built requires energy or some force to light it. Lightbulbs drain and run out, even LED lights eventually. Flashlights, car lights, lamps…they all pull energy from some other source that can drain or become depleted.

Then I think of the light God creates. Fire running wild, the sun burning always, bajillions of stars all burning with great force—all the light that He creates, it needs nothing to exist. It needs no other energy source. It just is.

When I think of our striving, I realize we’ve been trying to build light. I’ve been trying to produce light.

• We try to give God to people we love, strategizing perfect speeches rather than getting on our knees.
• We try to control and protect our lives from suffering rather than trust that God has good for us in all that He brings.
• We start to control and do everything ourselves rather than risk others’ involvement and their mistakes.
• We go through tragedy alone because we don’t want to bother people, believing the lie that we don’t need others’ help in our darkest times.

So what if instead of trying to create light, we simply received light? That sounds so much more fun to me, so much easier. We make lousy lights because we were built to enjoy and reflect light, not to produce light.

The degree to which we believe and embrace our identity as a Spirit-filled child of God will be the degree to which His light shines through us. We are God’s and He is ours. That is our identity. And it changes everything.

If we embraced our true identity, we wouldn’t just rest from striving to do impossible things; we would sit in awe of this fierce Light that is not contained and that is fully accessible to us.