It’s been a really long day.

I’m tired from work and adulting . . . and all I want is to go into my room and lay on my bed and fall asleep.

So, I stumble up the stairs in my exhaustion and fumble for the light switch in my room (SIDE NOTE: Did you know it gets dark at an ungodly hour in the winter in the PNW? Don’t get me wrong – I know Alaska is worse . . . there is always something worse . . . BUT, I just can’t get my heart on board with needing to turn on lights in my house before 5p – this is unnatural. END SIDE NOTE)

I turn on the light switch in my room – because the house is SUPER DARK – and – NOTHING.

Nothing happens. 

It’s still dark.

I know the power isn’t out, so this is a frustration, and only means one thing, right? The light bulb burnt out.

The electricity works. The switch works. The bulb is still in tact. The light fixture is not damaged. The filament just reached its untimely end.

I hate it when light bulbs burn out. For a couple reasons.

1. I’m lazy and don’t want to change it
2. I am expecting light – and I’m left wanting. I’m left in the dark, where I know there should be light.

When I turn off the lights to go to bed, it’s not a problem, because I know there can be light at the flip of a switch.

There is just something ominous about darkness where there should be light. Where there HAS BEEN light. 

It’s really simple, though – the problem. The filament burnt out. But the resulting situation feels uncomfortable, inconvenient, and ill-fitting.

With light bulbs there isn’t really an easy way to predict when the burnout will happen. But, people are different, aren’t we?

We have all seen a person lose it. Just fall apart. Burn out. They reached the end of whatever was propelling them forward.

Or, sometimes, if you are like me, we are just so defeated by the evil surrounding us in the world, that it is hard to believe in forward progress. So, it can be easier to just give up.

When a person burns out, it’s like something has been functioning in them and all of a sudden it doesn’t function anymore. Uncomfortable, yes. Inconvenient, sometimes. Ill-fitting, of course.

Also – unhealthy, hurtful, sometimes predictable, sometimes terrifying to those who love you.

And, unnecessary. 

When a light bulb is made, whether it is a 10 yr bulb or not, it has a set amount of material inside it. Once the glass is added, the inside materials can’t be replaced. It’s a whole – with no further access to the inside.

People aren’t closed off like that – at least we don’t have to be. 

We don’t have to have a set amount of material inside us just waiting to burn out. We were created to be more like a stream of water.

There is flow in and flow out. The Source of our life is powerful and endless – our strength comes from the Source – and flows from the Source . . . We are just the bed of the stream.

When we stop trying to be the source, the finite nature of what we can produce changes to something eternal. We aren’t on a timeline – just waiting to burnout . . . not knowing when what has been light will become dark. We won’t be surprised by a sudden lack of light.

We won’t be a victim to the darkness any longer.

It’s a bit ominous, when darkness replaces light. It’s a bit scary to feel like you have no control over when you’ll snap – when the filament will run out – when your strength will fade.

So, stop it.

Stop accepting a finite source.

You are not material enclosed with glass – you are the intentional creation of an Active and Creative God “through whom all things were created and through whom we live.”

Burnout doesn’t have to be a symptom of the human condition – not if we accept the True Source of Life and Light.

Then, there will not be darkness where there should be light – where there could be light – where there HAS BEEN light . . .

But for us,
There is one God, the Father, by whom all things were created, and for whom we live. And there is one Lord, Jesus Christ, through whom all things were created, and through whom we live.
(1 Corinthians 8:6)