Keeping The Lamp Lit

The doctor was puzzled. ‘You should be recovering by this time,’ she said, ‘have you been following my instructions?’ ‘Well, doctor,’ said the patient, ‘I have done most of them, but I can’t take that two mile walk every morning, that you recommended. I get too dizzy.’ ‘What do you mean – dizzy?’ the doctor asked. ‘Well,’ said the patient, ‘I must have forgotten to tell you that I am a lighthouse keeper.’

Our task as Christians is to keep the lamp lit for a dark world. There is only one thing on everybody’s lips at the moment, but the world continually faces challenges and, every day there are struggles and problems in our news across a wide range of issues. Indeed, perhaps one of the big challenges in these days where so much of the news is about coronavirus is to remember the many other desperate situations that are not going to go away just because this is happening. Is it not telling that one of the ‘hits’, one of the by-products of panic buying is the reduction in donations to foodbanks and the inevitable knock-on effect on some of the most vulnerable sections of the community?

But back for a moment to keeping the lamp lit and the image of the lighthouse. Christians, to stick with the image, do more than  round in circles in their lighthouses. They also climb down and row the lifeboats.