This past Easter, or Resurrection Day, if you like that better, I was able to attend a Sunrise Service on Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni. Chaplain Johnson, a friend, was the preacher, and used this Illustration.
When Robert Louis Stevenson, the author or Treasure island was a young child, he and his family lived in Scotland. As dusk was turning to darkness, he had his face against the window looking out the front of his house. He was fascinated by the lamplighter coming down the street. As the man approached each of the old gas street lamps, he would climb a ladder with torch in hand, and would light each one.
When asked by family what he was looking at, Robert answered with great excitement, "There's a man coming down the street punching holes in the darkness!"
That illustration was one of those "wow" moments for me. As I minister in Japan, and as any Christian anywhere, tells another about Jesus, the Light of the World, we are doing just that; punching a hole in the darkness of unbelief and despair. However little-by-little it may be, we keep punchin' holes for the Light to shine through.
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That is a really good illustration. We are attempting to do just that! Of course, sometimes we need our own lamps lit once again too. But then it feels like we're punching ourselves. I suppose that shows us we ought to let God do it more through us, rather than feeling we must do it for God - a point you made to me once.
As a side note, I believe I attended that very chapel when I lived there. I don't know if there is still a Church of Christ there or not, but I remember my time there with the brethren fondly.
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