One of my family’s most effective cleaning weapons is not a mop, broom, or sponge.

It’s the dimmer switch.

After long days of work, then home to feed and bathe children, then to host guests, our well-trodden house is often in need of more care and attention than our schedule allows. Enter, the dimmer switch, which, with one turn hides dust, debris and dirty dishes, makes stains disappear, and gives rooms a mysterious allure as imagination fills in where the light does not.

On this third Sunday of Advent John the Baptist takes center stage proclaiming his central role, which is to ‘testify to the light.’ As we know, light is not always a welcome thing. It lets everyone see the dirt and debris, it reveals every stain, and it forces imagination to give way to truth.

In Advent you and I ponder the notion that one day everything we say, do, think, and believe will meet the light. All truth will be known. All will be revealed.

So if we know the lights will be turned on, isn’t there some tidying up we need to do? Are there unmet obligations, broken promises, and unresolved conflicts in our lives that need tending to? Advent is that season of preparation in which we’re urged to turn up the dimmer switch before someone else does.

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Reading:

Barefoot Church –  Brandon Hatmaker

Pastor – Eugene Peterson

Leadership without Easy Answers – Ron Heifetz