Bright Lights

A few nights ago, we were out coyote hunting with the boys. Now I know that sentence was just plain scary, but no, nothing bad happened...no crazy adventures...it's safe to keep reading :)

I found out that sitting in the dark combined with having to be excruciatingly silent makes a great recipe for some quality thinking time. Avid hunters must be smart men! But anyways, as I was sitting there mulling over some different things, I became increasingly more and more aware of the blindingly bright arena lights a few houses down from where our coyote-stand was. (Like a deer stand, just no deer)

As we sat there longer, my desire for the cowboys to be done roping and SHUT THE LIGHTS OFF grew stronger. They were completely obliterating any night vision I had and were so overpowering that before I realized it, I was no longer thinking about coyote hunting. My thoughts were completely consumed with "How much longer will these lights be on for?!?"

The seconds and minutes seemed to drag, my eyes burned, and everything else became completely non-important. Down the street under the torturous lights, the cowboys laughed, roped cows, and let the lights shine on...oblivious to the misery they were inflicting. And still I sat there, shifting my head to every conceivable angle to try and find some way to block my eyes from the lights.

Suddenly, they turned off.

And blessed darkness ruled the neighborhood.

For a few blissful moments, I sat there completely content...despite the cold and the rather uncomfortable position I was sitting in. All I cared about was that the horrible, blinding, all-consuming lights were GONE! My eyeballs could relax.

That's when I noticed it......the small porch light on the barn across the alley.

No big deal at first, but as my eyes started to adjust to the darkness, the light became more and more of an annoyance. Pretty soon, I was nearly as distracted by the little porch light as I had been by the blinding arena lights.

That's when it hit me.

How often do we do that in real life? Some big, gigantic, life-changing, all-consuming event takes up every moment of our thought life. Maybe it's something good.....maybe something painful....but all the same, the rest of life gets put on hold as we focus so intently on this one thing. Small annoyances and distractions become non-important in light of the enormity of the situation before us. 

Then it disappears. 

The relationship heals...

The sickness is overcome...

The wicked, harmful person moves away...

The vacation is finished...

The amazing Scriptural revelation starts to diminish....

The wound gets better and the scar fades....

.........and life goes back to normal.

For a few days, weeks perhaps, we're changed. We're more thoughtful, more caring, small annoyances don't bother us as much. We live in the moment, enjoy people more, love harder, laugh more often, are more thoughtful and grateful. 

But then, as we adjust, the little things start to grate on us again. 

The dog still barks...

The sibling still does that irritating habit...

There's still parts of the Bible I don't understand....

The headaches still come...

......and we go back to the same person we were before.

Don't stay the same. Don't go back - go on. Go on and find what He was trying to teach you, where He was trying to send you, and how He was trying to grow you.

When God is gracious enough to give us a life-changing experience, we would be wise to let it actually change our life.