2017 Lent Day 1

It's the first day of Lent.  I've taken on the #40DayChallenge by Margaret Feinberg to read the gospel of John in 40 days.  Today's text is John 1:1-18.  What jumped off the page were verses 4 and 5.
I read this in many different versions and decided to share The Message so these are verses 3-5 of John chapter 1:

Everything was created through him;

   nothing—not one thing!—

    came into being without him.

What came into existence was Life,

    and the Life was Light to live by.

The Life-Light blazed out of the darkness;

    the darkness couldn’t put it out.

Such simple words Life - Light - Darkness we understand them so well yet our faith application can be almost extinct,  What am I talking about?  If we would live really live by these few verses our outlook on life would be totally different.  Answer this one question - when was the last time you let this world and what is happening around you affect your mood, actions, thoughts?  Have you allowed politics, illness, physical discomfort, fiances, inconveniences, personalities, injustices negatively affect you?  Of course we have -TODAY, within the last HOUR.  I'm not belittling struggles, trials or temptations - those are real - but our God is bigger.  

Why can't we see that Life-Light blazing?  For me I'd say my focus tends to be on whats going on around me and how that makes me feel and maybe I should say me me me one more time.  I'm not looking for the light.  I'm looking to complain or fix it myself - probably in that order.  When I do that I'm putting a cast iron bathtub over that Light-Life - helping the darkness. 

This scripture ends so beautifully - the darkness couldn't put it out.  No matter how hard we try we can't put Jesus out. Ok I'm assuming you know Jesus and you have taken Him as your personal savior.  The Holy Spirit lives inside us.  We can't put Jesus out.  His Life-Light shines.  We can ignore it, stop seeking it, even get far from it, put we cannot put it out.

Practical application - well we can all stand to pray more, read our bible more, do more service work, etc...  those are all good church answers.  Seriously what can I do?  The next time (oh in probably the next hour) I feel frustrated, annoyed, upset, angry, complainy over something I'm going to try and remember to say.  Let's SHINE some LIGHT on this.  Refocus my point of view from this world to my God who has overcome this world.  Or maybe I should carry a flashlight around and shine it in the eyes of the next person who aggravates me. :)

Lent for me is a time to really focus on where have I been going and doing the last year - and where do I want to be headed.  I don't know about you but I don't see in the dark very well I want the Life-Light to start leading my way.