Light

 Here in Northern Ireland we have had a week of really warm gorgeously sunny weather.  The skies have been blue, there has been no wind to chill the air and everyone has been out and about without their coats and even wearing sunglasses!  It has to be some kind of record for March.  And it has been lovely. 

Yesterday I was sitting outside on a sun lounger in the afternoon, with a cup of coffee, doing absolutely nothing.  Im not very good at doing nothing.  But somehow the sunshine makes it easier for me to just stop and sit and relax.   I was thinking about how good the sunshine feels and it led me down a little ponder about light.  I wondered what happens to people if they are completely deprived of light - as a form of torture for example.  So I turned to Mr Google for help and got completely fascinated by the properties of light and how we respond to it.

Light is critical for our mental and physical wellbeing.  It regulates our sleep, our mood, metabolism, bone density, blood pressure, weight, digestive system...... you name it and daylight probably affects it. Statistically we are all experiencing less and less exposure to daylight because so many of us work inside all the time.  Its quite possibly got alot to do with the mental health crisis that has hit us so hard over the past twenty years or so.   Then  I started to wonder about blind people.  And amazingly found some research which suggests that blind people who cant see anything at all are still affected by light. If you are interested to find out more here's one article.  Its fascinating (https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131028090408.htm).  From what I can understand many blind people dont actually experience total darkness, but even the ones that do still show responses in their brains to the presence of light.   

The absence of light is used as a form of torture and it is very powerful.  Darkness is disorienting and frightening. Scientific studies have shown that even moderate exposure to darkness can make us more likely to lie and cheat, make mistakes at work, and even hallucinate.  Complete blackness is such an alien environment for us and it messes with our mental health.  And of course if the presence of light is necessary for good physical health then its absence is highly detrimental to our bodies as well as our minds.

SO.....

when Jesus says I AM THE LIGHT He is saying something very specific.   I dont know about you but when I read that phrase I tend to think that Jesus is a bit remote - like the sun.  He is massive and mighty and life giving and the light He shines lets us see everything clearly.  His light is what dispels darkness and defeats death.  In Him was life and the life was the light of men. ( John 1:4)   But today I realised that what He is also saying is that He is MY light.  I need him, just like I need sunlight, to be physically and mentally healthy.  He is the one who regulates my metabolism and my sleep and my blood pressure and my weight.  If I am found in Him then my mood is steadied and Im able to make good decisions, work well and live long in the land.  If Jesus is really my light, then I think I should be able to live in all the benefits that light gives.  But perhaps in order to do that I need to do what I did yesterday with the sunshine.  I need to stop, intentionally position myself to catch the rays and allow myself to be exposed to His shining.  Here I am Lord, shine on me.