Turn To The Light
The whakataukī (Māori proverb) for this post is: “Hurihia to aroaro ki te ra, tukuna to ātārangi ki muri i a koe” [Turn and face the sun and let the shadows fall behind you]. In other words: Repent! Turn your being from the gloom and lift up your countenance to the light. Let the darkness fall behind you as you walk into the radiance of the day.
The purpose of God shining supernatural light upon us and out of us is so that the nations might see, praise and understand the goodness of our God.
Biblically, God is related to light. God spoke it into being and dwells in unapproachable light. Jesus is the light of the world. God’s favour is said to radiate or shine down on the blessed from God’s face. Light is strongly associated with life, spirit, presence, favour, blessing, goodness, honesty, transparency, exposure, visibility, clarity, awareness, understanding, wisdom, foresight. As followers of Jesus, we no longer walk in darkness or ignorance of the things of God for we have the life-giving Spirit of God dwelling in us, teaching us the ways of God; and the permanent presence of God with us as an expression of God’s loving mercy and kindness (‘hesed) towards us. The purpose of God shining this supernatural light upon us and out of us is so that the nations might see, praise and understand the goodness of our God.
The Apostle Paul seemed to favour a phrase that translates as “I do not want you to be ignorant”. I feel I should preface what I am about to say with that phrase. We cannot afford to be ignorant of what is going on in the world, but I am finding it does us little good to be staring out there into the shadows for too long. Whether it be news reports, toxic social media, talk-back radio or just general current affairs chit-chat, our attention is (understandably) drawn to the doom and gloom. But it quite literally sucks the life out of us. Again from Paul, let us instead “Fix our thoughts on what is true, and honourable and right, and pure, and lovely, and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise” (Philippians 4:8). These things turn our face to the light and you can feel life coursing through your being like the warmth radiates over your face when you turn it to the sun.
This isn’t merely positive thinking. I wasn’t being flippant when I declared “Repent!” above. This is a turning away from the profane and towards God, setting our minds on things of heaven, not of earth (Colossians 3:2). Not so it can help us attain the things we want out of life (as positive thinking promises). No, so that it literally transforms our life, renewing our nature in-Christ and conforming it to Christ.
That’s not to say we should ignore “the things of earth”, but that we no longer look to them as our source of life.
Remember the old chorus, “Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face; and the things of earth will grow strangely dim, in the light of His glory and grace”? That’s how Christ-followers should interpret today’s whakataukī. Turn and face the Son, and let the darkness fall behind us as we follow the Son. For, “the Son radiates God’s own glory and expresses the very character of God” (Hebrews 1:3). And we “who have had that veil (ignorance) removed can see and reflect the glory of the Lord. And the Lord—who is the Spirit—makes us more and more like Him as we are changed into His glorious image.” (2 Corinthians 3:18).
That’s not to say we should ignore “the things of earth”, but that we no longer look to them as our source of life. Rather, with the compassion of Christ, we look at the stuff of earth through the eyes of God’s mission, to radiate our light, which reflects God’s light, out into the world with our love and good deeds, and an answer for the hope we profess. In this way we expose the deeds of darkness (Ephesians 5:10-14).
We live in the light of God’s love, in opposition to the darkness around us.
I don’t know about you, but I am too easily distressed and overwhelmed by the shadows, by the reports of the atrocities committed against the vulnerable and marginalised, and especially against fellow believers by aggressors from other majority religions. I think of the billions whose minds remain veiled from the knowledge of God in Christ, and the great physical needs in the world, which are growing by the day, and the corruption and evil that is the source of those problems. We don’t deny that these things remain part of our reality, in the same way that our shadow is part of our reality. But they cannot command our attention. Rather, we should engage them with faces turned to the light and use that light to illuminate the gloom and expose evil deeds. We live in the light of God’s love, in opposition to the darkness around us.
I know too many ‘justice-oriented’ activists who have become consumed by focusing solely on the shadows, overwhelmed with the enormity of what it takes to bring about change. So many in the relief and development industry today are horrified to see three decades’ work on poverty alleviation disappear in a matter of months. It is soul destroying to be peering into that darkness trying to generate light yourself. If that is you, repent! Turn to the light of life, bathe in the radiance of the Son and feel your being inflate once more with the Spirit of God, who is working out God’s purposes in the world even if we cannot perceive it. Work to illuminate the shadows from the position of light.
For us all, let us #stayonmission and “live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. Holding firmly to the Word of life…” (Philippians 2:15-16a) as we walk towards the Son.
Whakapaingia te Atua, to tatou kaiunga ki te ao whanui (May we be blessed as God sends us into the wider world),
Jay
