The Light's Better in Here?

Senior Pastor, Steve Thulson

Remember the classic sitcom “I love Lucy”? At least on really old TV re-runs?

One evening, Lucy’s husband Desi comes home from work and finds her on hands and knees scanning the living room carpet. When he asks “What are you doing?” she explains: “I’m looking for my earrings.” He’s puzzled. “Don’t you keep them in the bedroom?” “Yeah” she says, “but in here the light is better.”

I can’t say I’ve ever searched for lost earrings, but I’ve done plenty of looking. What gets lost for me ranges from my favorite coffee cup to letting Jesus be my strength for a life in his love.

Sometimes – especially when it comes to looking for what matters most in life –  I’m looking in places where I’ll never find what I need and want.

Why do I look there? Because there “the light is better.”

 Down deep I assume that the solutions to my problems are what I (or others helping me) can understand, manage, and fix. The “better light” for finding lost peace might be getting more money, getting more safety, or getting more liked by others. For a group like our church, we might assume that what’s needed will we be found where we have the “light” of certain programs, traditions, policies, or events.

Could it be that what is most lost is in some other place?

Like the depths of our hearts? Could it be that what alone can show the way is some other light? Like a dark place of loss called Golgotha?

What if the greatest of losses – every single one we endure – can there be drawn into the THE Light of an empty tomb, into “the life that is truly life”?

It’s worth looking there, don’t you think?

(P.S. I never watched all that much of “Lucy.” I found the story in a good little book on organizational health by Patrick Lencioni, The Advantage, page 6.)