The little red light

Years ago, when I was a teenager, I attended a church in another town for a service. I can't remember why we were there and I don't remember the message, but I do remember the mission board at the back of the church. It was a world map with the locations of all the missionaries they supported.

There was another thing on the map that caught my attention...it was a little red flashing light. This little light was on the mission board with these words below it- "Each time this light flashes another soul passes into eternity without Christ."

My first thought was, "Oh, that's a neat thing." But, after taking my seat in the service it started to bother me. Often, during the service, I would look back at the light and it was still blinking. It started to bother me…a lot! My thoughts ran from, "I wish that would stop!" to "What if I just unscrew the bulb?" and "how can these people ignore that light and just sit here?"

What seemed like a neat idea at first started to really bother me. It has bothered me for many decades since. That little red flashing light, meant to communicate the need for missions, has been an ever-flashing light in my life to remind me of the crisis of humanity.

As Penn Jillette said, "If you really believe this stuff and don't tell me about it then you must really hate me a lot!" So, today, once more, maybe for the 10,000th time, I'm thinking of that little flashing light that has been flashing in my mind for these many decades. My prayer is that I would be part of God's plan to help many I meet not be one of those eternal flashes.