Pulling the Trigger

I hang the last portion of the very last strand of icicle lights up on my house. It is finally time to plug them in and make our home all merry and bright.

I plug in the lights and.... nothing. Oh, wait. That strand is half working. The next strand is mostly working, but still has some lights out. The final strand is fully working... no, wait... three lights just went out.

The epidemic spreads to the yard. Half of the light up presents aren't working. The poor reindeer never had a chance. Don't even get me started on the multicolored light tree.

All hope seems lost. Then I discover the Christmas light repair gun.

I remove a bulb that isn't working, plug the socket into the gun and pull the trigger.

CLICK. CLICK. CLICK..... Lights on!

The reindeer that had not worked for two years is suddenly glowing brightly again. The presents that only had half of their lights on now shine brightly for all to see. Suddenly what was once hopeless is filled with beautiful light once again. So what did the Christmas light gun do?

It fixed the internal problem in the lights. When you unplug the lights and put them away, they get cold over the winter and they start having internal issues. The wiring gets messed up and the connections get weak.

The light gun repairs those issues, but it does one other thing. It exposes where bulbs have burned out.

Sometimes we unplug from the things that are important in our life. We pack our Bibles away on a book shelf and we wonder why we don't feel happy. We try to force a smile, but it is half-hearted at best.

The act of going to church alone doesn't help. It makes us feel worse because we see people that are truly happy by all appearances. We begin to feel even worse inside.

All hope seems lost. Then we rekindle our relationship with Christ.

We bring our broken spirit to Jesus, plug into the Bible and pull the trigger.

CLICK, CLICK, CLICK... Joy.

The hope that had been lost is found again. Suddenly we begin to feel happy again. The light that had all but faded shines brightly for the world to see. So what does Jesus do?

He fixes the internal problems in our lives. When we stop praying and never read our Bibles our hearts begin to grow cold. We become complacent. Our light starts to fade out.

Instead of drawing closer to Christ and reading our Bibles, we step back from our only source of light. The one thing that can fix our life is the first thing we start to cut out when we have problems. Why? The light exposes our sin.

We don't want anyone to see what we've done so we are content to stay in the dark. Ironically, pride itself is a sin.

If you have a relationship with Christ, but it isn't as strong as it used to be, try this. Just start praying and reading your Bible. If you haven't done it for awhile it might not "click" on the first time. Just keep pulling the trigger.

If you've never accepted Christ, now is your chance! God is the creator of your soul, Jesus is the savior of it... and the Holy Spirit is the one who repairs the internal damage caused by sin. If you want to accept Christ it is very simple. You have acknowledge to Jesus that you have sinned. You have to believe He is who He says He is... the Son of God and the Savior of the world. Next, just ask Jesus to forgive your sins and commit to turn away from that life. Lastly, have faith that he will reward your prayer with eternal life!

Whether you've been a Christian for years or you've never accepted Him, now is your chance to get connected. Pull the trigger and let your light shine!