In my last post, (You can see all these posts at http://amokarts.com) I shared a post that was based on a line from the Rend Collective Song, Hallelujah Anyway that says.

I’d rather light a match than curse the dark.

And I thought I would revisit that a little bit today. I spoke to how easy it is to curse the dark, but I questioned if cursing the dark is counterproductive. As I was mowing my lawn yesterday, I was dwelling on this, and a few more thoughts came to mind. I want to be the person to “light a match” instead of cursing the dark, but how does one do that? How do you know which match to light? As I continued to do laps around the yard, a few thoughts came to mind.

The first one should be obvious, seek the Lord. If He guides us into all truth, and I believe He will, then He should guide us into the places where we need to be light. Of course there are some general areas. If someone needs help, seeing that can be an engraved invitation to strike a match. So can loving your neighbor, meeting a need, being a peacemaker, and anyone of a number of the things the Lord calls us to in His Word. To put it simply, we should bring light to all the places God where calls us to in His Word, as we see situations arise in our world. The old adage comes to mind. When you see something and think, “Someone should do something about that,” we need to at least consider that “someone” might be you! Be that someone and light a match and this sort of leans into the broader topic of life mission. 

For starters, a life’s mission can be as simple as looking for opportunities to serve and being a servant. That would be an admirable way to be a light, to light a match if you will, but let’s go a little deeper. What does it take to light a literal match? It takes friction. Where do you sense friction in the world? What cause lights you up? What burdens your heart? What makes you lose sleep? Who needs love and mercy? Who needs help that you can help? What tugs at your heart? What gives you a holy dissatisfaction (emphasis on the word “holy”)? A word of caution here—make sure this feeling of mission lines up with the word of God, otherwise your match might end up igniting a destructive fire of sin that ends up running counter to the will of God. Otherwise these feelings of friction are likely a holy nudge to do some good in our world. Basically when we see darkness encroaching on the things that burden our hearts, we can either curse the dark or we can light a match and be a part of the solution. 

Sometimes the key to all of this is “Do you nave a match?” Is there a gift, talent, skill set or experience that draws you to this cause? I find that our calling is usually found at the place where our gifts, experiences and opportunities meet. As any example, I have found my abilities in the arts to be a very useful tool in my mission. In a sense that might be my “match.” My passion is to see as many people as possible to come to know Jesus and to help people find and use their God given gifts to serve the Lord. God has especially given me a heart for people with “special needs.” The abilities He has given me help me to communicate the Gospel and “draw people into the story.” That’s mine. What’s yours? 

One last thing. I love that Rend Collective used the term “light a match.” A match is not a huge light, it’s small, and I think that’s important. A lot of people get discouraged because they look at the size of their cause, feel too small to do anything “significant” and decide they don’t have what it takes. That’s not the right way to look at this. In a totally dark room a small flame becomes the focus. It’s the only thing that can be seen. The idea is not necessarily to start a big blaze. The idea is to make a dent in the darkness and inspire others to do the same. Some will get to do bigger things, sometimes the things we do will spread, but that’s not up to us. Our job is to light the match. Be a match lighter.