day 503: Last One Out, Please Turn Off The Lights

"Last one out, please turn off the lights". This is not an uncommon posting to see in a conference room, a hallway or a lobby of an office building. Yes, some facilities managers have installed the more sophisticated automatic off motion sensors, but most of us are reminded that we have to turn the lights off when we leave the room. It's also a bit of a metaphor for some of us who don't know how to turn it off when we leave the office or our job and we have to be told what to do to shut down and not waste our own energy or take the chance of burning out. Why is it so hard to turn off the proverbial lights behind us? Maybe we worry that if the lights go out or dim that they won't come back on. Or maybe in a funny way we are afraid of the dark when we think the dark represents insecurity in our jobs, or worry about how our co-workers will treat us if we take some time off or try and recharge our batteries. What we should never fear is that if we need rest, that if we go to the right source, that rest will come without worry or concern of our future. That rest does not leave us in the dark, that rest become the light of God. We read in 1 John 1:5; "This is the message we heard from Jesus and now declare to you: God is light, and there is no darkness in him at all." As we move through our offices this week and we leave a room, let's use that little cue to remind ourselves that we can flip the switch behind us without any fear of the dark and instead be recharged by God's rest and never ending light.

Reference: 1 John 1:5 (New Living Testament)