It must be amazing to win an Oscar or a Grammy. Imagine being an actor or actress or singer or musician, beloved by so many adoring fans already, and to be in a room with all of your peers who love the same craft that you do and to hear your name called out above all others as the best of the best. After all those years of hard work, at last, the spotlight is on you. The applause makes your heart swell with overwhelming joy. Life is good. You’ve been recognized. Your agent can ask for more money.
Imagine the adrenaline of finishing a NASCAR race in first place with thousands of fans cheering… roaring. The champagne cascades as you are hoisted up on the shoulders of your hardworking crew. Imagine cutting down the nets. Imagine winning the gold medal.
If you’re daydreaming, that can be a fun place to spend a few seconds, imagining that elation. They worked hard… they earned it… you’re happy for them and in their happiness, you see a place that you would like to be, if only for a while. It must be truly fantastic to see a distant light, to follow it and to finally arrive at some long-sought-after destination. It’s time to bask in that light, at long last, and to be fulfilled.
That’s what happens, right? After traveling so far… after sacrificing so much… our search would be over. Why else would we invest our very souls into something so deeply if it wasn’t to achieve fulfillment? There’s the light. I went to it. Mission completed.
Well, the answer to that my friend depends upon the stars that you are following. Not all lights are created equal. There is a well-known metaphor that comes to mind about the moth being drawn to the flame. There is another about the light at the end of the tunnel being an oncoming train. The truth is, our ambitions, while laudable with the right perspective, can easily lead us to a place far from anything ultimately fulfilling. The gossip blogs and magazines are filled with famous people who had it all and their lives careened out of control after they achieved their successes. You would think that having it all would virtually guarantee inner peace. And yet, the very pinnacles of success as measured by today’s society and popular culture leave those who achieve it still empty and longing for something more. They followed their light and in the end, it only let them down. That’s why so many famous people become activists in areas other than their own profession. The prize they attained was hollow and didn’t fill the void like they thought it would so now they must begin the search anew. They begin to search for another light… a different light.
To paraphrase the 1980’s band The Human League…We are only human; born to make mistakes. When the light we follow lets us down, we choose another light to follow and usually, striving within our own whims, that choice is no better. So how do we know that there is a target worth striving for? Is there a light that we can follow that won’t leave us cold in the end? Well as a matter of fact, there is a book, said to be an ancient sacred text, that contains the account of a man who offered a different light that men and women everywhere, of every walk of life could follow to find fulfillment. His story predates even the actual printing of books as we know them and even though there have millions and millions of books printed throughout the history of books, this one seems to speak to our life circumstances, even in modern times, better than any collected text ever has. In it, a man named Jesus said “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have the light of life.”
Wow… could it be that easy? Isn’t that exactly what we have been looking for? The light of life? Something truly fulfilling? Something that somehow fills the void we fill in our hearts and that doesn’t meet us at the finish line with cold neon or fluorescent fake-ness? Just think about some of the people who followed their light and attained it all only to find it was just click-bait in the end. Without naming names, we can all think of celebrities that reached the pinnacle and self-destructed. How empty it must be to hold something you once thought valuable and realize that it doesn’t live up to the hype. At this point, you have to be asking yourself, is there anything that’s the real deal?
Jesus said in Ephesians 5:14 “Wake up sleeper! Rise from the dead and Christ will shine upon you.”
There’s your good morning wake-up call.
We are a world of followers, even those who lead. We are all adherents to something. There is a light that we all look to. The path we are on leads somewhere. Everyone that you come into contact with is a believer, in something. Since most of those roads are all dead ends, why not show them something that works. Be a burning light in a sea of neon lights.
Be a different light.
-Mark Bishop
Mark Bishop is a Dove Award-winning Christian Music artist and writer with a brand new recording entitled “A Different Light”. Classified as mostly traditional in style, the lyrics and music speak to God’s bigness in everyday happenstance. You can find the new album across all platforms here. https://clg.lnk.to/HpUHw