What Does Your Light Shine On?

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What time is it when your watch runs backwards?

Before I share with you the punchline to that joke, a little lead-in. Two years ago, I was on the airplane headed back to Southern after Christmas break. I looked down to see what time it was, only to discover that my watch was actually running backwards.

So what time is it when your watch runs backwards? Time to buy a new watch. And that is exactly what I decided to do.

Because I am a connoisseur of only the finest in timekeeping machinery, I headed straight to Wal-Mart. There were only about five hundred different watches to choose from, most of which were decidedly feminine looking. However, I did find one which wasn't too girlish, and for a whole $7.99 it became mine.

It ran nicely, and nothing appeared to be wrong with it. I was content and happy until one evening I glanced down at and become very amused and slightly disgusted. You see, this watch had a serious design flaw. The man who engineered it needs to lose his job at whatever Indonesian watch factory it came from.

It was a face watch, and oddly enough the numbers were painted with glow in the dark ink, but the hands weren't. So in the dark, the watch displays a glowing circle of numbers but no time.

One must wonder exactly what the reasoning behind this is supposed to be. If I were ever to forget how to count to twelve in the dark, I guess the watch would be usable, but otherwise it was pretty stupid. It was likely a manufacturing defect, but still, pretty stupid.

Matthew 5:14 sees Jesus calling his followers “The Light of the World.” What he meant was that we as Christians represent to the world what God is supposed to stand for. By our actions or “light” those who do not know God are supposed to get a picture of him through us.

However, as my watch quite accurately points out, not all light is created equal. The purpose of a watch is tell time, and the purpose of glow in the dark ink is to make it so the watch can tell time in the dark. But my watch didn't tell time in the dark, even though it had light.

You've already figured out where I'm going with this. Do your actions represent Christ? Do your actions betray who you serve? Or are you like my watch, sending out light with no real purpose? Many atheists point to the hypocrisy of Christians who claim to serve Christ but live no differently than the rest world. Don't be like that. Let your light shine and illuminate the nature of God.

You are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do they light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Matthew 5:14-15

As an aside, the watch talked about in this story broke awhile back. I bought a new one a few weeks ago, and both the numbers and the hands glow in the dark. But this one came from Target, so I'm really not surprised!