The edge of light

Will, my new son-in-law, is an avid cyclist. He is not into the casual bike riding; he is into the 50-mile type rides. He is a serious cyclist. I am the type that may have ridden 50 miles in my lifetime!

Last week he showed me a new light for one of his bicycles. We had most of the lights off in the living room, so he turned the light on, and WOW! That little light put out some lumens—400 to be exact. I was impressed at that circle of light. Then, I asked him what that little light was worth. He told me that it retailed for $100. That’s right--$100 for a flashlight!

OK, it is an expensive light, but I was still impressed. After his demo of the light, I thought about that circle of light and how distinct the difference in the light and darkness was. It reminded me that often we who walk in the light are afraid to step outside that circle of light that is our comfort zone. We walk to the edge and do not trust God to provide the light for us as we walk into the darkness of the unknown.

How many times has the still quiet voice of God spoken to us and we have responded in our heart of hearts, “I can’t do that” or “I am not qualified to do that, Lord,” or “Lord, you have to find someone else who knows better than me how to do that.”

Walk to the edge, take another step and trust God to provide the lumens.

“And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him.” Hebrews 11:6 NASB

Getting caught

Living in West Africa afforded our family many opportunities to be exposed to “wild” animals. Even though these wild animals were a long way from our home, our kids grew up with exotic animals. Villagers learned quickly that I would buy most any animal from the wild, so they regularly brought us all sorts of creatures.

I never paid much for any species, but the villagers were very happy to get anything for something that they thought was so trivial as a wild animal.  At one time or another we had a baby crocodile, a bush baby, a dikdik (miniature antelope), a monkey, an African Gray parrot, and so forth. The kids enjoyed caring for them and they learned a lot about caring for animals—although they had plenty of experience caring for our flock of chickens, goats, sheep, pigs, ducks, a horse, donkeys, cows, turkeys, guineas, and rabbits.

One day a man that I had never seen came to our gate with a pair of elephant tusks tied on the back of his bicycle. The tusks had blood on the tusks that was not yet dry. The man told me that he cut them out of a “dead” elephant earlier that day. I had my doubts about how that elephant became classified as “dead.”

They were a beautiful pair of ivory tusks, and he wanted to sell them to me for a very small amount of their value. I really wanted those tusks. I was salivating to buy them, but a small voice in my head was saying to me, “You know that it’s unlawful to possess uncut ivory in this country,” But, another voice was saying, “You will never have another opportunity for a buy like this. Those tusks are worth a lot of money.” I was thinking about how good they would look decorating our home, but then I was thinking of how quickly our family could be expelled from the country.

Sound judgment prevailed and I did not buy them, and I quickly asked the man to leave our property as I did not want to be caught with those tusks at my home. I have thought many times about this incident and particularly about what made me decide not to buy the tusks. Was it that I did not want to break the law, or, rather, was it because I was afraid of getting caught? I must confess that it was the latter. I was more afraid of what others would say about me if I got caught or what they would think about me for buying contraband. I knew the right thing to do, but I was VERY tempted to do what I knew was wrong. Being tempted is not a sin, but if I had bought those tusks it would have been wrong.

So, whoever knows the right thing to do and fails to do it, for him it is sin (James 4:17).

Mimes

Jeremy and Kimberly and girls have been with us for the past week. During this visit Shelby and Darby have often said to me, “You are just like my daddy.” Finally after hearing this several times, today Cheryl corrected one of them and said, “No, your daddy is just like your papa.”

The first thought that came to my mind when she made that statement is that Jeremy is like me because of DNA—Deoxyribonucleic acid—the self-replicating material present in nearly all living organisms as the main constituent of chromosomes. But, there is more—Jeremy is like me in many ways because he spent the earliest formative years of his life living with me and his mother and siblings.

The girls were referring to things like something that I might say in a given situation that their dad would also say, or how we both peel a tangerine, or how we season turnip greens. Jeremy learned those things because he lived in our home and was influenced by his parents, not necessarily because of DNA.

I have been thinking about the very familiar verse in Ephesians 5:1—“Therefore be imitators of God, as beloved children.” I looked up the root word in Greek and Latin for imitate and found that it has the same origin as mimic or mime.

Just recently someone asked me about an area in London, and I talked to them about all the mimes who perform in the public square in this area. What do mimes do?  They don’t speak, do they? They express themselves without saying a word, but when they are trying to get a message to their audience, they express it in such an exaggerated manner that you don’t miss their message.

To be an imitator of God is not about actions that I do for God. It is about actions that God does through me. How does God do things through me? First of all I must be His child—I have given my heart and life to Jesus Christ. Then, I must obey His commandments. What is the greatest commandment? I must love the Lord my God with all my heart, my soul and my mind and I must love my neighbor as myself.

Be imitators of God…then I must love the unlovely. I must love someone who I don’t think is worthy of my love, but he was created in the image of God and God loves him as much as He loves me.

The old hymn says it for me: “Your life’s a book before their eyes, they’re reading it through and through.”