America has begun a new year with a fresh President in the Oval Office who has many of the talk shows and newspapers voicing a renewed sense of confidence in the long-term future of our country. The President is telling us that he hopes for a better, brighter future for every American, with improved economic growth, sense of fairness in our foreign policies and the realization of the American Dream for our school children - that anyone can overcome their personal difficulties and become President of the United States.

This begs the question that each of us needs to answer? Where do we place our confidence for today, for the future or for that matter in time of personal need? How do we as individuals fit into all of this? In whom, or in what, do we place our hope?

Take a moment and think back about a specific time that you entered an old barn or work shed on a bright sunny day. Can you feel the dampness and smell the dusty odor of the barn? If the structure is reasonably tight there will be little light probing its way through the slab wood siding into the building once the door is fully shut, maybe just one or two spots such as a knothole or a crack in the wall where a bright beam of light drives back the darkness. Give your eyes a moment to adjust and you will begin to notice that you can make out many of the familiar shapes around you in the very weak light provided by the sunbeam, while there are still lots of dark places that the weak light just does not penetrate. If you look closely at the sunbeam traveling from the entry point in the wall to the floor you can see the hay dust floating through the light beam as it rides the air currents.

Your hope or confidence for the future can be understood in that beam of light. While it may not seem very important to you to think about that beam of light entering the dark barn, C.S. Lewis suggests that how you perceive and interact with the light beam reveals two very different characteristics about your faith in God. On the one hand the beam of light illuminates a portion of the dark barn where the beam penetrates the wall, but as you move away from the beam everything else resides in gray shadows before falling into deep pockets of darkness. If you recall from your science class, darkness is the absence of light, so with the sunbeam in attendance (even just a small amount) there will be no absolute darkness. This unfortunately is how the vast majority of us live our life of faith and how we understand Christ’s teaching in Matthew 5:14 "You are the light of the world”. We see ourselves as reflectors for Christ – we think of ourselves as a specular (mirror like) reflection where the light of Christ reflects from us to those around us in our small portion of the world. Many Christ followers in America study their Bible, worship and pray for loved ones from the perspective of standing in the barn and trying to have light rays reflecting off of them in such a way as to illuminate Christ in their lives.

This does not work out very well because of our fallen nature and this form of interaction with the light beam is often characteristic of new or undeveloped followers of Christ. Unfortunately, much of the light that reflects off of us is diffused and does not produce an image of Christ. Thus we just look like the good neighbor who lives next door or that nice office guy who takes the time to help out in a pinch: just an all-round good person but nothing to get excited about.

Yet, C. S. Lewis points out that each follower of Christ can learn to step into the path of the light beam in order to look along that path to the source of the light outside the barn to discover that there is an entire universe bathed in light. As you press your eye against the crack in the wood slat or knothole you can see the beauty of the world outside. Learning how to live out our confidence in God by looking at the source of light and not just trying to reflect the light, makes a tremendous difference in our faith walk. I believe that this is what David is telling us in Psalm 27:1 “The LORD is my light and my salvation-- whom shall I fear? The LORD is the stronghold of my life-- of whom shall I be afraid?” Our entire perspective changes and our hope becomes focused on the light-giver who lives in inapproachable light.

Take a moment and read Psalm 27 through twice – the first time as if you were standing in the barn next to the sunbeam crying out to God for personal help and protection in time of need. Now step into the sunbeam and focus your eye at the source of light knowing that illumination penetrates fully every corner of the universe except this lost and broken world. By standing in the light and looking at its source, it breaks through all the darkness that surrounds you. Verses 2 & 3 teach us that God’s protective presence and care provide confidence (total trust without fear) across a wide spectrum of trouble. Since David was a warrior he expressed this total trust in terms a fighter would understand, ranging from a few violent men who want to harm him to an all out war. David’s desire to experience the deep personal intimacy of God gives him the boldness to ask God if he (David) could reside where God normally lives his life -- Keep in mind that in David’s culture you didn’t really get to know someone until you lived in their house 24/7. This moment-by-moment living relationship with God allows the Psalmist to encounter not only the goodness of God but also God’s protection, which leads to praise (Verses 4-6). Verses 7-10 express a deep inner yearning to experience the reality of verse 5 that moves David to cry out for a deeper personal relationship with God that transcends the problems of life. In verse 10, David’s confidence in God is so strong that even if the most intimate human relationship, that between parents and child, should unravel God would still be there to watch over him and protect him from the darkness that surrounds him.

The Psalm ends with David expressing his expectation that he will experience God’s goodness here and now in this life – this is real hope and true confidence! However this requires that we are to be strong and courageous (verse 14); and keep in mind that David is speaking from a warrior’s point of view. A living faith that truly reflects Christ to those around us requires a fighter’s strength and courage. This then is my prayer for you today: With your eye pressed against the slot in the slab wood you will see the universe as it was created, for God’s Glory and under his full control. Because of this you can live a strong and courageous life, waiting in complete expectation that God will further reveal himself to you as you look at him in the light beam.
This is hard work!