Back in February of 2019, our ministry started a YouTube channel. As we got into producing videos, we quickly discovered the importance of lighting. Of course we already knew that lighting was important. After-all, you can’t make a video in the dark. But there were things about the source of the light and the reflection of the light that we had never considered before. Then, our circumstances, the starting of the YouTube channel, caused us to think about these things and, as we thought about them, we discovered things about handling lighting that helped us to make our videos look better. Lately, I have been thinking about these concepts and how they apply to life in general. I think the circumstances in which the world now finds itself should make all of us think about the source of the light that we currently reflect and how well we reflect that light. I would like to talk to you about that.
Jesus is the light of the world (John 8:12), His Word lights our path (Psalm 119:105), and He is constant (Malachi 3:6 and Hebrews 13:8). It is His light that should guide us as Christians and it is His light that should reflect off of us into the world. However, there is other light that can enter into this equation. Jesus is supposed to be our source of light and He is the only source of true light but we have false light coming from everywhere. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). We live in a world where unsubstantiated opinions abound and not much is taken as authoritative, including God’s Word. If we aren’t careful, some of Satan’s false light will spread, and in fact is spreading, into the Christian Church. That, my friends, is very dangerous and it takes much diligence on our part as Christians to avoid it.
When we started making videos in my study, we quickly discovered that the ambient light in the room, just the light coming from the ceiling light fixture and sun light coming through the windows, was insufficient. So, we got additional lighting, thinking that simply having more lighting would solve the problem. However, we neglected to take steps to block out the old light source, the light coming in from outside. That was an innocent mistake. We just didn’t think about it being necessary. And it wasn’t immediately apparent that the light from outside the room was going to cause a problem. We set up the new ring light, we shot some video, my wife looked at it, and she said it looked good. Then, we needed to redo a small section because of a mistake I had made in quoting a passage of Scripture. No problem. We reshot that section and my wife again said it looked good. Then, she inserted it into the previously shot video and looked at it. She said “we have a problem”.
She explained that the short section of video that we had inserted was brighter and the quality of the color was a little different as compared to the rest of the video. She explained that the original video looked good and that the new section looked fine too, when you viewed it apart from the original. However, when the new was inserted with the old and you saw it all together, it just didn’t quite match and the difference was enough to be a little bothersome. At first, she was puzzled as to what was causing the difference. After thinking about it a little, she realized that it was very cloudy out when we shot the original video and so the artificial light was the only light effecting the video. By the time we shot the additional video, the sun had come out and the sunlight combined with the artificial light caused that video not to match the original video.
So, we had found the problem but how to solve it? We realized that this was going to be a continual problem because, depending on the weather and whether it was day or night, the light outside was constantly going to be changing. We needed to block out the outside light, as much as we could, so that the artificial light we had set up would be the only light effecting the video. That way, no matter when we shot video, it would always match. We hung some very heavy curtains that blocked out the outside light. We then reshot the little section of video, inserted it into the original video, and it matched perfectly. Problem solved.
Let’s think about this principle as it relates to Jesus and His Word as our guiding and illuminating light. We get saved. At first, we do our best to study and abide by His Word but, after a while, we sort of lose steam. We don’t really actively try to block any influence that doesn’t align with His Word. It isn’t that we don’t care. We just don’t give much thought to it, one way or the other. We hear people say things. We see posts on social media. Some of this stuff is posted by people who we know to be Christians. These are good people. Surely they know what they’re talking about. Some of the things they say and share even quote Scripture. It sounds pretty good. But do the things they are saying align with Scripture? Is the Scripture they are quoting taken in the proper context? We don’t really know for sure because we don’t study the Bible much ourselves. What they’re saying sounds good, it kinda makes sense, and a lot of other people have said something similar. So, we’re sure it’s fine. We’re so sure that it’s fine that we repeat it. People see and hear that. They know we’re Christians. And the cycle repeats. Those of us who are perpetuating the cycle aren’t bad people. We just aren’t being diligent enough.
Here is the problem. Remember that the second video we shot looked good, by itself, but when we compared it with the original video, it didn’t match and so we didn’t use it. We had to take steps to keep outside light from interfering and then we shot video using only the intended light source. That video did match and we used it. A lot of the things that we see and hear sound good, by themselves. However, for many of these things, when we compare them with what God’s Word says, they just don’t match and so we should stay away from them.
Jesus is supposed to be our source of light and He is the only source of true light but we have false light coming from everywhere. Satan disguises himself as an angel of light (2 Corinthians 11:14). We need to put up spiritual curtains, to keep that false light from influencing us. We need to constantly spend time in God’s Word, so that we can compare the things that we see and hear with that standard to see if it matches. If it doesn’t match, then we need to turn away from it. If we find too much of that false light getting in too regularly, we need to close our spiritual curtains a little tighter, to keep it out.
Let’s go back to the video analogy. The light that was coming from outside was inconsistent and it would always be inconsistent, changing with the weather and the day night cycle, because that is just the nature of natural light. When the outside light was coming in, it didn’t just go right into the camera. The windows were behind the camera. it reflected off of me into the camera. That’s how the camera could see it. That is how the video footage was effected by the inconsistency. I didn’t realize this when it was happening. Even if I had a video monitor in front of me, I would not have known. I am completely blind, lacking even light perception. My wife had to look at the video and tell me of the effect that the outside light was having.
That’s how it is with us and Jesus. His power and love shine into our life. His shining presence provides a light to guide us along the path that He would have us walk. That light reflects off of us, so that others can see it, so that they can be guided too, so that they can be drawn to Him. If we allow light in that does not come from Him, that false light will also reflect off of us and it can distort His light, causing the correct path to be illuminated less clearly, for us and for others. There are times when this happens for all of us but, on our own, we may not realize this is happening. Without God’s illuminating presence in our life, we are all as spiritually blind as I am physically blind. Just as my wife had to tell me about the problems with the video, we need God to tell us of the problems in our own life. We need the illumination of His Word to light our path and to reflect off of us so that others can see it too. We have got to make a conscious effort to spend time with Him in prayer and studying His Word, in order to bring that light into our life and in order to know when to close our spiritual curtains to keep out the false light of outside influence.
Consistency of lighting was important to making the video look right. Consistency is important in every facet of our life. God’s love and his character is absolutely consistent, never changing. When we spend time with Him in prayer and studying His Word and we seek to live out that Word, in time, we will begin to obtain a joy from that relationship that is unlike anything we can get from any other relationship or from anything else. Just as He is consistent, the joy that comes from Him will be consistent. It is important that we are grounded in that connection with Him and that it is He who influences us, first and foremost. The things of this world are inconsistent by nature. When we let the things of this world build us up or tear us down, then our reflectivity fluctuates. The things of this world, good and bad, are all temporary. It’s fine to be excited because we are doing well financially and we are in good health and things in the political arena are going the way we like. However, inevitably, one or more of these things will change. If the joy we are reflecting comes from these circumstances, then when the circumstances change, the light we are reflecting will change as well. We will be yet one more inconsistent thing in an increasingly inconsistent world and that will not help to draw people to Christ.
Think about one more video analogy. Darkness doesn’t reflect light well. We painted the walls in my study a dark color, so that even if there were shadows in the videos, they wouldn’t be very noticeable. Similarly, when our mood is darkened by circumstances, even if Christ is present in our life, not many people will notice. It would be tragic to possess such a bright light which can chase the shadows from the whole world and then cloak that light in darkness.
The bottom line is that, just as I needed a unchanging light source to make my videos look the way they should to my viewers, we need an unchanging light source to make sure we look the way we should to the world, so that we exude a positive witness for Him. Just as with my videos, that won’t just happen. I had to get the proper light and then take action to block out all other light. As Christians, we must make sure that Christ truly is the source of light in our life and then work to block out other influences, so that His light is the only light we reflect. Just as I had to ask my wife what the videos looked like, because of my physical blindness, we have to ask Christ what our life looks like, because of our spiritual blindness. That spiritual blindness will be chased away by the light of His Word but, in order for that to happen, we have to spend time immersing ourselves in His Word. As our relationship with Him deepens and we begin to truly find our joy in Him, we will find that our circumstances have less influence over us and that the dark things of this world don’t negatively impact our ability to reflect His light. We will begin to truly have a positive impact for Him. This dark world needs us to reflect His light now more than ever. Let’s be as shiny as possible for Him!
