Is This Thing Working?

DS 4 was given one of these glow sticks today after school by a friend. I thought it was "dead"...but he held it like it was a treasure even in broad daylight. On the way home, he shook it and shook it and pondered it. He was deep in thought and I didn't pay too much attention to it or to him. I just drove in silence.

He left it in the car, because it seemed to lose it's "thrill factor"--especially in broad daylight. We went inside for a while. About an hour later, we went out to get him some dinner (no one else was home and THIS Mom is TIRED). I told him we'd have to go get gas first.

As I pulled into the gas station, he shouted, "Oh my gosh, Mom, my stick is leaking!" I looked down in time to see him pick up the oozing stick. Everything the "ooze" touched was neon yellow, including DS 4's hands, a CD case, napkins that it were sitting near and spots of the interior upholstery of my car.

There I sat in broad daylight, cleaning up the mess and noticing how suddenly EVERYTHING seemed to be "touched" by the neon yellow. It seemed that it seeped into small crevices and in places that were hard to reach. I don't know if it's because I'm a bit melancholy today or because its Holy Week or because I needed to think about this object lesson, but I suddenly found my thoughts shifting to my faith.

I couldn't help but think that my life, and yours, is sometimes not so different than the glow stick (Disclaimer: I do NOT advocate emptying the ooze out of a true glow stick--but our spiritual one might be different):

• In the "right setting" (the dark for the glow stick and spiritual settings for us), it's EASY to be seen and be visible to those around us. We can let our light shine and share our faith without reservation.


• Other situations, though (like the bright sunshine for the glow stick and secular social settings for us) sometimes leave the "glow" locked inside a neat little container. It's at these times that we have the glow...but it isn't touching anything or anyone.


• If we let the ooze out of the glow stick, it's evident that it colors everything around it differently--even if it's only a little bit. We need to let our Spiritual Glow stick do exactly the SAME thing...let it "trickle" out until it touches the people and situations around us and starts to color them differently...and helps them want the same type of glow.
• It's important that we get out of our "comfort zone"...the confines of our own space...otherwise, we may never make a difference in the world around us.


• It is our responsibility to not only be Christ's light in the "easy" settings, but also in the "more difficult" ones.

So, tonight I am wondering about my own

Spiritual "Glow Stick"...Is this thing on???