new moon phase.

I put on my warm three-quarter length jacket tonight and took the dogs for a walk. While walking I realized that it was abnormally bright outside. I looked up to see a full moon and a sky full of stars. I continued the walk talking to God, as I typically do, and asking Him to guide me and give me peace about everything I fleshed out in the last blog.

As I was walking by a yard that had some large tree branches that were hanging out over the street, I noticed that they left a shaddow from the light of the moon on the pavement. I thought how neat that was because the moon is just reflecting the sun's light. This reminded me of a t-shirt that my youth leader, Elaine, gave me back in high school. The front of it said, "Be the moon." The back said, "reflect the Son." The shirt was talking about how we, as Christians, ought to be shining Jesus' light into the dark world.

I then thought of how the moon changes and goes through phases. It is not always this bright. Each phase gives off a different amount of light. There are phases when the moon is full and bright, like tonight, and there are phases of "new moon" (not the twilight phenomenon - which I am proud I know nothing about!). New moon is where there is no moon, no light at all.

God the asked me, "What phase do you think you are in right now?" I paused for a moment, but not long enough. I know where I am and sadly I have to confess that I am in a new moon phase. I have not been soaking up enough light from the Son to have anything to shine to this world. My light is burning, but not brightly. I might even consider that right now I am in a solar eclipse phase of complete darkness.

My next thought is probably the most convicting. As I kept walking I started to think about what makes the moon go through phases. I realized it isn't the sun, it is the Earth. Wow. Isn't it the same Earth that makes our lights go through phases also? The Earth starts to get in the way of how clearly we see Jesus' light. We receive less from Him and therefore have less to shine onto the Earth around us. I don't know about you, but I think that most of the time, sadly enough, I like having the Earth in my view. I compare myself to others around me. I do this by taking my eyes off of Jesus and His light and instead I put them on the darkness of the Earth. This is not how I want to live. When I look at it through this perspective it doesn't look so great.

As I looked back up at the full-moon, I was awestruck with just how brightly it shines. It makes all the stars pale in comparison. I want to be like that! I want to shine so bright that when people see me, even from a far away distance, they almost have to squint their eyes. I want to be a light that shines into the darkness of people's lives and shows them there is something better out there and His name is Jesus. I want to be the light of revelation. To reveal people's sin to them so they can recognize their need for Jesus. I want to reveal to them the One who heals, restores, cleanses and renews. But... how can I do that for others if I don't first let the light into my own life? There are 28 days in the moon's cycle. It takes 14 to go from new moon to full. These next 14 days I am going to ask God to shine brighter into my life than ever before and help me to learn something new about Him. I challenge you to do the same, no matter what day you read this.

So, what it would look like to be full-moon all of the time? We all go through phases of ups and downs in life, of light and dark. But, have we ever stopped to think that we are the ones changing our position? The Son is always the same. He is constantly shining with the same brightness. And He gives us the opportunity to soak it (Him) up every day. Are we taking the time to do so? Or are we slowly waning towards new moon phase, where we have nothing to show people? Let's get our wax-ing on, turn up the voltage, and shine even brighter today and this week for Christ so we can be the light that points other people to the Son!

New moon is a phenomenon, but it might be different than you think! :)