Take the Challenge!

Even if you've never watched what some are calling Netflix' "first cult classic" (a record 45,037,125 accounts tuned to it during its first week last November), I'm still guessing that since you're reading this, you probably have a computer, and so it's possible that you've at least heard about the movie Bird Box and the "Bird Box Challenge." In the challenge, people pay homage to the flm by blindfolding and then filming themselves doing everyday, mundane tasks, such as petting their dogs, playing basketball, and putting on lipstick. But some of the activities that are filmed should never ever be done with eyes closed, like giving a tattoo or driving a car.

The phenomenon got so out of hand that earlier this year, Netflix released a Twitter statement saying:

"Can't believe I have to say this, but: PLEASE DO NOT HURT YOURSELVES WITH THIS BIRD BOX CHALLENGE. We don't know how this started, and we appreciate the love, but Boy and Girl have just one wish for 2019 and it is that you not end up in the hospital due to memes."

(It's okay if, at this point, you need to stop and Google "Boy and Girl" and/or "memes.")

Now, I understand the challenge; I just don't get it. I mean, if you want to experience life without light, you really don't need a blindfold. You can have the exact same experience in the middle of an Indiana cornfield.

It was Mark Twain who supposedly said, "The coldest winter I ever saw was the summer I spent in San Francisco."

Well, I've never been to San Francisco (but I kinda like The Beatles.)

Wait a minute. Wrong song.

How 'bout this?

"The darkest night I ever spent was in the middle of a cornfield in Indiana." (That doesn't quite have the same ring to it, but it's true.)

First off, I'm a city boy. My wife tells me this all the time. While I thought I grew up in the country, apparently having driven on a dirt road at some point in my life and having viewed (not milked) a few nearby cows does not mean that I lived in the country.

That said, most of my life has been lived "in the light." Whether it was the security light on the Duke Power pole outside my childhood home or the streetlights outside my current home, I have never really had to fumble around in the dark, no matter what time of night it was.

Except for that one night in Indiana in the middle of a cornfield.

Okay, it wasn't really in a cornfield; there were just cornfields as far as the eye could see. I had driven my parents up to northern Indiana for my sister's and her husband's graduations from Purdue University and we ended up staying a couple nights in their home.

Remember that line from The Fugitive where Tommy Lee Jones asked for a search of "every gas station, residence, warehouse, farmhouse, henhouse, outhouse, and doghouse" in the area?

Well, with apologies to Deputy Marshall Gerard, that night in Indiana there was no sunlight, moonlight, starlight, streetlight, flashlight, candlelight, or even lightin' bug light.

It was dark.

And so, when I got up in the middle of the night, it was a completely new experience. I literally could not see my hand in front of my face, much less the furniture in front of my shins!

While I've always just sort of taken it for granted, looking back, I can't imagine a world without light. I don't want to even think about a world without light.

And yet, we live in a world where, albeit the minority, there are voices at two extremes:

1) Those who want a world without the light of Jesus.
2) Those who are convinced that the light of Jesus has been extinguished from the world.

First, there are those who actually dream about a world without Jesus. I mean, isn't that what John Lennon sang? "Imagine there's no religion..." (Okay, maybe I don't kinda like the Beatles.)

How dark would that kind of world be?

In his book, How Christianity Changed the World, Alvin Schmidt lists fifteen changes that the light of Jesus brought to our world, including the sanctity of human life, sexual morality, the freedom and dignity of women, hospitals and healthcare, and liberty and justice for all.

I mean, a world without just those five would be so much darker than that Indiana cornfield!

But then there are also many (Christian?) naysayers who lament the fact that the darkness has overtaken us. Like Elijah falsely believing that he was the only one left on God's side (only to have God tell him, "Nope, you're one of thousands"), they take their cue from the nightly news and report that, "Evil has won. The light is gone."

Jesus says, "Not as long as you're around."

"You (the clear emphasis in the Greek) are the light of the world." (Matthew 5:14 ESV)

Visible...

Unmistakable...

Undeniable...

Light.

By the way, it's impossible for the darkness to extinguish the light. The light will always shine. It isn't even dependent on if we hide or shine the light ourselves. The light shines on... but it will be so much brighter in our world if we will just allow it to shine through us.

So, here's my challenge to each of us light bearers (and it has nothing to do with a blindfold):

Don't hide the light; instead, show it. Even when it's uncomfortable, shine the light.

And, if you ever find yourself in an Indiana cornfield in the middle of the night, take a flashlight. You're gonna need it.

You might even run into Boy and Girl!