Slow Glowing
Caution tape surrounds my house today, and there are the sounds of drills, hammers and work boots on my roof. After what seems like too long a time, our solar panels are undergoing the process of restoration.
For the last few years, they have faithfully converted our abundant sunshine into kilowatts, and by agreement with our power company, paid most of our electricity bill. It’s been a really good arrangement. A couple months ago we discovered they were not doing their job…at all. They have been shading the roof, but that’s all. It is not the purpose for which they were manufactured and installed.
It turns out there is a little diode that gets hot and melts the solder that holds it in place, thus severing the connection. That little bit of electronic engineering must be replaced in order for the dozens of panels to be restored to their proper function. This must happen in every single panel…one at a time! It’s a design flaw.
I have the same kind of design flaw, but mine is purposeful and not the result of failed engineering.
Growing from infant-follower of Jesus to readily recognizable Jesus-chaser, is a long slow process. Our basic design flaw is our fallen nature, our old self, our “flesh.” And our failure to live up to our own standards, let alone those of our perfectly holy God, lets us know there is work to be done in us. Even after becoming a fully-devoted, all-day-every-day follower of Jesus, it takes a long time, many everyday failures and almost as many gigantic personal tsunamis for me to bring some of my fails to Jesus. Shining with the light of Jesus is a slow-glowing process. Each failed diode of my habits and thoughts must be replaced with the truth and firmly soldered into my life. This takes more time than I would like…and maybe more time than you would like, too, if you are close to me.
Learning to follow Jesus is not a semester or two of a college class, nor even the time it takes to get a PhD; it is a lifetime. God is not in a hurry, and when I get impatient with the process in my life or the lives around me, it is just evidence that I need more parts replaced with truth.
Jesus is the Light of the World; He tells us that WE are the light of the world, continuing on His mission. It’s slow-glowing, but we will be like Him if we keep
Following Jesus every day in the everyday!
Christi
P.S. If you haven’t heard it in a while, The Quilt Song might be an encouragement. Check it out!
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