Lighthouse and Light Home

The writing that takes place here can come from various points.

Sometimes they come from a thought I have on the day. Sometimes they come from something I heard or read. Sometimes they come from an experience I’ve had. Sometimes it comes from an experience I’ve observed. There are other ways in which these pieces come together.

This particular piece comes from years ago that is still very pertinent to what’s going on with me today and also has nudges and hints within it of things to come. At the same time it’s also part of a process of working out things that are rumbling within me as I converse with God about things that matter to Him.

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I like the idea of the lighthouse.

The picture that comes to me is as follows. You are on a ship. It’s the night. You are on the high seas and the wind is fierce. You are not quite clear on your bearings. It looks treacherous. Some of the others on the ship are queasy and afraid. But up ahead you notice something. It is spinning … no encircling … it’s a light. It’s a clear light … and  … and  … you head towards that which emits the light. As you head towards it, you see the light making you aware of key things in front of you. You can navigate around certain things because of the light that beams. Where other things appear unstable due to the waves, etc. this source of light is secure. It’s stable. It is unmoved. It is as a result reassuring. You can gather your bearings. You can get an idea of where you are and where you can go as a result. It doesn’t stop the waves and the winds, but it offers assurance and guidance in the storm.

Then, however, there was the idea of a Light Home. That’s not such an obvious concept, although in a sense this idea has been going on for eternity. What do I mean by a Light Home?

What comes to me is as follows. Home to me is about intentionally intimate relational environment. Experience teaches me that having physical structures and material trappings creates a lot of things, but home isn’t one of them. Even if it’s a space for me on my own, it becomes home when I make it and see it as an intentionally intimate relational environment even just for me. Ideally, however, the feel of home is about that relational environment shared among at least one other.

What makes it a Light Home, as you might have guessed, is where that intentional intimate relational environment is primarily for the other to be Jesus Christ. That can be cultivated in any physical structure and it’s beautiful when two or three or more individuals can share that commitment to sharing in that intentional intimate relational environment. He creates that environment by invitation and cultivates that environment as we enjoy that invitation.

As a Light Home, it is not static. It’s mobile. It inhabits whatever space Jesus leads us to inhabit. It is not about waiting for those who floundering in the dark to wait and see the light. It lives out the light right in the middle of the darkness for others to see it. In the community. In the workplace. In the pub. In the match. Wherever.

As those Homes share the light within, it inevitably beams the light beyond it. So others similarly get an invitation to see what this is all about. Get an invitation to come to the Light Home – not just get guidance for how to go on, but see that the guidance is to go on in the Light.

The Lighthouse and Light Home. It’s not really a matter of either/or. It is a question of whether or not you’ve experienced either or both. It is also an issue of whether we see the need for both.

It’s a work in progress.

(Photo by Evgeni Tcherkasski on Unsplash)

For His Name’s Sake

Shalom

C. L. J. Dryden