Kingdom Journal

Alone, I hide in the small cupboard in one of the bedrooms on the second floor.
Laughing to myself.
It was so far away. They would never find me.

Hide and Seek has always been one of my favorite games.
Especially in such a foreign place.
As a child, I went with some friends from church to the wooded property of their grandparents.
We stayed in the large home of her grams and gran and played all day in the cabins and homes on the property.
It was the dead season, no one was camping so the homes and the woods became our playground that day.

I sat there, patiently. I knew I must have won the game,
I knew everyone had to be looking around for me.
They all hid in the front yard. They all hid in the main house.
They all hid on the bottom floor. They all hid behind trees.

No one had thought to run through the woods of the backyard to the vacant back house.
Everyone was afraid of the back house. No one came near it.
I knew it would be the last place to be found.
I thought I had heard something, but I was too excited to be scared.  

After what seemed like an eternity, I decided to open the cupboard door.
At least I thought I did… how was it still so dark?
What was that noise?
It began to sink in, I had fallen asleep. Night had come and it had gotten completely dark.

I called out to see if someone was there.
After a moment, I decided to climb out of the cupboard and call out a little louder.

Silence.

I tried to feel around, taking a few steps I realized I had forgotten the way I came in.

I panicked.
I began to move quickly, just trying to find something to look for.
It was so dark. I couldn’t even see my hands in front of me.

I felt along the wall, trying to get to the stairs.
Making my way down, I heard sounds coming from the upstairs hall.
“Hello”, I said to no response.
Too afraid to see if anyone appeared out of one of the rooms, I moved faster.

I made it outside.
Hoping to see the moon, I only saw a few stars.
I looked all around for any sign of light.
I couldn’t even see the main house through the trees.

Trying not to panic, I walked straight ahead, with my arms out to feel for anything around me.
It was like being blind.
I made my way through the thickness of the trees and out of the corner of my left eye, I thought I saw some light.
Without hesitation, I began walking towards it.

With each step, it became clearer, this was light.
I walked a little faster.
Faster and faster, I began to call out for my friends.

No response.
I didn’t care, I had found light.
I was so drawn to this light.
But as I drew closer, I couldn’t believe my eyes.
One single candle holder sat on a rock.
My attention was fixed on it.
It was almost completely melted.

I picked it up and looked around, hoping to see more candles, hoping to see the camp fire.
I had hoped I could find something more, some kind of evidence to get me back to the house.

There was nothing. I tried to use the light to find my way, but it led me nowhere. It was too weak to even illuminate my feet.
A wave of fear passed over me.
I was stuck in the middle of the woods with one single, dying candle.
One single candle that couldn’t even light my way.

_____________________________________

Why would anyone only want one candle? The effect is nearly unnoticeable in a vast area of darkness.

While it is enough to lead someone to the light, there is little that can be done with it beyond that. All it does is attract to itself and then the viewers are captivated as the wax melts and the light goes out.

Why would anyone want to burn poor and lonely?

You are a part of something greater than yourself. You, within your own power and ability, will never achieve the entirety of the goal. You may be able to bring someone to the light, you may draw all of the eyes in but it is what happens after that that counts.

We need each other.
We need other light.
We need other “candles” to truly lead anyone Home.

You are not a one-man show. Stop pretending like you are. 

You can mentor someone, yes. You can help lead someone somewhere, yes. You can offer warmth to someone, yes. But YOU are not all someone needs. You could be the brightest flame in the fire, but without the others, what good are you?

No one’s saying it’s always easy to get along with people. Or that you will always adore every single person you meet or love and understand every little thing you do, but if you just give it a try, you’ll find it becomes the most natural thing in the world to be a part of a team.

So go make up with that girl that used to be your friend. Go say sorry to that guy you said mean things to. Go repair the relationship (or relationships) that went wrong somewhere along the way. You may have A LOT of apologies to give or relationships to rekindle, but I promise, it gets easier the more you try.

If not, then what exactly are we doing here? If we can’t mend our relationships and work together then what is the point of even claiming to follow after Christ? He forgave and forgave. He called the lowly and the losers to do GREAT things. He showed people who they could be, constantly looking over the dirty things they had done and told them who they were made to be.

He worked together with people and He stayed so close with God that He lead the others and gave them strength, courage and wisdom when they had none. He taught them to light the way while lighting the way for them. And He did it all at their level. He did it as a human, just as they were. 

Don’t you see? If we’re Christians, if we’ve got a relationship with Christ, we should be like Christ. He wasn’t self-seeking. Yeah, He drew all men to Him, as their Saviour but FIRST, He did so as a man. And then, He said that whoever believes in Him can go on to not only do the same things, but greater things as well. I almost can’t even fathom that… wow.

And we want to trade that in for our 15 sucky minutes of fame? We want to trade that in for the people of this world to be drawn to our flame. Man, I’m over it. 

Jesus is the light of the world. But He Loves us enough to have shown us how we can join that fire and let it spread. Not as lowly little candles, but we can burn like torches together! We can burn like forest fires. We can burn like the sun by simply living like the Son. 

Think it over. Do you want to be a poor and lonely flame? Or do you want to find where you fit? Do you want to truly grow up and get to your full potential?

Seriously, think it over.

Let the Revival Begin.