Light It Up

Have you ever spilled something in the dark? It seems to run away from you quickly and spread rapidly before hitting the floor and creating a bigger mess. You have to move quickly to turn on the lights and get things cleaned up, or your cleaning efforts won't be very effective.

In Luke 18, Jesus tells a story of two different (but messy) men--one who stands proudly and proclaims how good he is, and the other who stood at a distance and declared his desperate need for God. The self-righteous man made sure to bring into the light only those parts of himself he wants God & others to see-his virtue, his fidelity, his generosity. The genuinely repentant man hid nothing from the burning light of God and God provided mercy beyond belief. 

Jesus' story stresses our own need for transparency, confession, and stepping into the light of God's truth. Without this step of humbly revealing authenticity, we're only praying for our own sake and not transformation. It proves that even spiritually you can't clean up a mess in the dark-you only make a bigger mess.