Scripture says that as Christ-followers, we are the light of the world. But what does that mean? What good does it do to be the light in such a dark world?
Dr. Tom Phillips of the Billy Graham Evangelical Association says that during the darkest times the light shines the brightest. To illustrate, he tells the story of when he and his friend Clay Crockett got lost in a cave.
“We didn’t get permission which was unlike us. We just drove up to Tennessee from Mississippi and found this cave we knew about and we went in.”
Clay and Tom were both Eagle Scouts and they always knew that they should be prepared before embarking on an adventure. But this time, they weren’t prepared enough.
“We only had one flashlight and after about an hour we got way back in the tributaries of this cave and our flashlight went out. We tried every way possible to get it to come back on, but it didn’t work.”
Tom and his friend couldn’t see and they had no way of knowing how to get out.
“We could have easily have died there because our car was hidden along the Tennessee River under some big trees thirty miles from home. Nobody knew we were even away from our home town. We prayed and we started trying to get out of there and about an hour later we saw a pin prick of light.”
As quickly as the light had appeared it was gone. The cave was so dark that they were able to see the small pinprick of light. If it wasn’t for the sheer darkness, they might have been stuck down there forever.
As they walked towards where they saw the light come from, the light slowly got larger and they eventually came upon another entrance to the cave.
“Clay and I got out that day because of a tiny pinprick of light. Our society is darkening and darkening, but when it’s the darkest is when the light is seen the best.”
While the darkness of our world grows, so to our ability to stand out and be a light to others grows.
Dr. Tom Phillips is Vice President of the Billy Graham Library for the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tom has been the Vice President of Crusades, Executive Director of the Billy Graham Training Center at The Cove in Asheville, North Carolina, a Senior Crusade Director with the BGEA for many years, directing crusades in several cities in the United States and Canada.
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