Whose light is that anyway?

So I'm coming at this post from an uncomfortable place today. I don't have the direction of the post figured out yet. I'm trusting that the Lord can make something that I haven't found the pattern to yet.

I've been working on the concept of lighthouses. I know I am to be a lighthouse, and I'm working on learning everything that it means to do so. There is a lot of symbolism, and I feel I can learn more about my role as I learn from the symbolism. For example, what does it mean in the hymn when it says "let the lower lights be burning" - it's a beautiful tune. One that has been in my mind for about a week now when my brain goes to neutral.

For those of us that are male, you'll understand. We like to have our minds in neutral - it's our zero place. It's a good place. For me, that song fills that spot in that place.

Photo by Getty images

And what about the light? The lighthouse doesn't generate it, it just reflects and perhaps directs the light. It's not the lighthouse's light, it's the Lord's, but the lighthouse directs it to save and protect and guide others.

I guess it's also true that the lighthouse may never know or meet those whom it has guided or protected, but it has done its job nonetheless. The lighthouse doesn't come with a lot of fanfare - no marching bands, no fireworks, no applause. It just does its silent job in saving souls.

Today's reading is on light, and I'm working in Alma chapter 32. This follows a well-known discussion on faith. Light comes in slightly after that. verse 35: O then, is not this real? I say unto you, yea, because it is light, and whatsoever is light, is good, ye must know that it is good; and now behold, after ye have tasted this light is your knowledge perfect?

So the answer to the last part of this is that no - you have received light on a subject, and you have knowledge. But that doesn't make you a PhD. It might make you a day 1 kindergarten graduate, but there is lots of room for growth here. It might be true that as soon as you think you've achieved something for yourself or in the Lord's kingdom, you've stopped or severely stinted your future growth.

But when we receive light, "Is this not real?" We know it is when we receive it. It feels, it tastes, and you can see it. You know it. This is how a person can know the difference between good and evil - you come to know the beautiful feel of the Lord's light. Nothing else can approach it.

Many will try to duplicate the light. They will copy the routines, match the language patterns, sing similar songs, use impressive language and shout about holiness, but they lack the Lord's light. Christ is the light and the center of it. Without him, a lighthouse is just a pile of rocks, and its purpose is just as empty.

May we fill ourselves with the Lord's light, and ask him to allow us to reflect that light to others. "As I have loved you, love one another". May we learn what Christ meant when he said "As I have loved you" - that comes first. Then we can lighthouse in His name and with His power.