Accustomed to the Dark

English cleric William Farrar wrote, “I am only one, but I am one; I cannot do everything, but I can do something. What I can do, I ought to do. And what I ought to do, by the grace of God, I will do.”

What can one person do?

A lot.

The Bible tells the story of one woman who saved a nation. Esther may not have been the first woman people would have imagined for this assignment. After she won a beauty contest, she became queen in the Medo-Persian Empire.

And in that position of influence, Esther, who was Jewish, discovered that her people faced a serious threat. A wicked man named Haman had devised a plot to exterminate every Jewish person in the empire.

Esther considered appealing to King Xerxes on behalf of her people. But by doing so, she would be risking her own life. The king could have her executed for approaching him without his invitation.

But her cousin Mordecai sent her a message, which said, “Don’t think for a moment that because you’re in the palace you will escape when all other Jews are killed. If you keep quiet at a time like this, deliverance and relief for the Jews will arise from some other place, but you and your relatives will die. Who knows if perhaps you were made queen for just such a time as this?” (Esther 4:13–14 NLT).

In other words, “Esther, God doesn’t depend solely on you. But He can use you in a powerful way. Will you step up?” Esther did, and as a result, the Jewish people survived. One person made a difference.

You, too, can make a difference. So make the decision to be the godly representative that Jesus called you to be. He said, “You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14 NLT).

We live in a dark world where people are comfortable in darkness. They have become accustomed to the dark.

But a little light can go a long way.

After the capture of the Bastille in 1789, a story emerged about a prisoner who had been confined to a dark, dingy dungeon for years. When he was released and led outside into the Paris sunlight, he begged to return to the prison. His eyes could not endure the sun’s brightness. His only desire was to die in the very darkness where he had been a captive.

That is how a lot of people are today. They live in darkness, and they are comfortable there. But the Bible says that when we come to Christ, we “turn from darkness to light and from the power of Satan to God” (Acts 26:18 NLT).

We need to shine the light of Jesus Christ into our dark world. We must take it seriously and seek to make a difference in our culture wherever we go, whenever we can.

You make a difference. You have a strategic and important part to play.

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