I had hoped to get this posted yesterday on the eve of Oscar night, but was just not able to get to it. So here I am in my chemo lounge, where there is a chance I can get what I want to share down on paper, so to speak.

Picture a stage, and picture a spotlight on one person, even yourself. It is a spotlight that is able to follow you around the stage, and is also capable of decreasing or increasing, as might be necessary, the circle of light as it follows you around the stage.

That said, let’s set the stage: “If we walk in the light as He is in the light we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus cleanses us from every sin.”

After 73 years of walking around down here, I have become convinced that all of us have a core need for center stage. There was a time when Cain was center stage, but along came Abel, and that was the end of that.

This just to say that feeling like we are “less than” doesn’t necessarily require parental dysfunction or abuse, though there is increasingly more of both around. The fact is, all of us have a core need to be center stage, and the Love of God is more than able to meet that need.

The bottom line, or the “center stage place” where this need is met, is at the foot of the Cross.  It is here that we discover what the Love of God is, and not just once, but all day long. Without this revelation we are going nowhere, and certainly not going to a place where we are “more than.”

This to say that center stage – bathed in the spotlight of God’s love – we are “more than.” It is in that light where “Christian Fellowship” becomes possible. “Christian Fellowship” is just not possible in any other venue. The fellowship that Jesus prayed and died for, (see John 17) is just too intimate, even passionate for us to enjoy without stumbling if we are not completely bathed in the light of God’s Love.

So here’s the deal as I have come to understand it:

If any of our darkness, woundedness, or “less-thanness” projects beyond the circle of center stage light, that is where we have occasion to stumble. We are not capable of pulling those dark spots into the circle of light. Our only hope is to stand still under the light until the circle of His light is big enough to cover all our areas of darkness. Then we can start “walking in the light” – the certainty that the blood of Jesus will cleanse us from every sin, and every occasion of stumbling.

Bless You Today!

Love!

By Jay Ferris, originally posted February 27, 2012