There are times when I have lucid moments with my Master. He shows me something and I get it, I see it, it makes sense, and I get excited (because they’re rare). What Chambers writes about here is making use of those times to act on that experience on the way down or out of it. I should not be amazed at how often that I fail exactly at that point. I am so shocked to be in the moment, it fades before I act and then I don’t act since it passed.
I have had some very lucid moments, and I have had times of semi-lucidness, and so on. But the common element to each of them is the sense of truth. I would have a revelation of something new (to me) about my Master, or about my relationship with Him, or insight about needs of those around me. While in ministry, it was easy to act on them, since that was expected. Now it is unusual, and somewhat disruptive, possibly embarrassing or vulnerable. But those times, since they are from my Master, are also calls to action. Chambers is exactly right there. The passage he uses is John 12:36, and this passage follows the resurrection of Lazarus after being dead over three days. The people around Jerusalem want to see the One who raised Lazarus. The Elders want to kill Jesus and Lazarus.
While on His way into Jerusalem, the Father speaks audibly in response to Jesus, Greeks seek Him, and He speaks of the sort of death He will suffer. John makes the comment that though Jesus had performed this sign of raising Lazarus, they still did not believe in Him. Jesus says to them, “While you have the light believe the light.” The light, one of several thematic references in John, will be leaving; and with Him, an opportunity, a “kyretic” moment will pass. The people have an opportunity to respond to Jesus as their Master, but they are to tightly married to their desire for a political king. They can see only as far as their subservience to Rome, not their slavery to sin. This is me.
When I get so distracted by my woes at work, am I any different than these souls who witnessed the death of the Creator? When I lose my cool driving eight miles in traffic, am I better off or clearer of vision than they were? How about when I get angry with my daughter because she was mean to me instead of using that as a teachable moment to calmly provide guiding consequences? Or when I am sarcastic or cynical with my wife over some meaningless comment or action, am I still in touch with the amazing revelation of grace of my Master? Does the reality of the Savior with which I have been provided sink below my conscious into the fiber of my personality? When I am by myself, no one sees what I do, I feel the tendrils of my old behavior and I wish for it, whether I give in or not, that I wish for it shames me! Jesus loves me, He has my back, and I am at His service. Yet when I do these things, I stand over His cross, hammer and spike in hand, ready to add another stroke to his pain.
What do I believe, and what do I do, and do they match? What light have I been given, and is it fading? And when it fades, what will I do then? Will I believe still, will I act as if it’s true, and will I continue to obey? Or will my actions, thoughts, behaviors, and attitudes look more like those who live as if there is no Savior except themselves? Even now, thoughts move through my mind, memories of things I have seen, things I have done. Even as I pray in electronic form, my mind still is not clean. What light do I have, and will I believe while I have it? Perhaps the term I need to adopt is becoming a “Son bather” and soak up the light of the Son. I hope for a fourth degree burn to the bone from light of His face, so He can rebuild me from the core in the form He desires. Wow, sounds painful; like being crucified (Ephesians 2:20).
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