Too many light switches!

     The hallway in my house has 4 light switches for the 30 feet of its length.  That's overkill.  A light switch ever 8 feet or so.  Why are there all these light switches?  Convenience!  That's the only reason they are there.  Most of the time we don't even use the hallway lights.  But, we do have 4 switches to choose from should we desire to do so.  The family room, which is at least quadruple the size of the hallway has one light switch.  The same is true of the living room.  You're probably wondering where I could possibly go on this topic.  The hallway light switches are reminiscent of the many times I have read Scripture and each time a different light/understanding was turned on.  Sometimes it was a realization that I had read the Scripture wrong and a light was turned off.  More often than no God was trying to get me to see the meaning of his Word so that I could bring that light to others.  I became a Christian in October of 1971 and have read and re-read the Bible many times.  I'm still surprised while reading the Bible that a Scripture I've read 50 or more times comes up with new revelations.  The difference each time has to do with God's need in this world through me. 
     I need the different switches flipped in my life as well.  I'm finding that the more I learn, the less I know.  Re-learning lessons in life have been like switching lights on and off any number of times.  The, of course, from time to time the light bulb burns out and there is the need to change the bulb with a better bulb that will last longer.  No, I'm not talking about changing my faith.  Neither am I implying that that which I believed was wrong.  It's just that sometimes we need to take a look at the whole in order to see how one change can make a big difference.  It's like this, when I was a police officer I issued tickets.  Hopefully to none of my readers!  There is a big difference between the letter and the spirit of the law.  The letter of the law is engulfed in legalism while the spirit of the law is more along with the flow of life as God intended.  Where the letter of the law demands a ticket be issues, the spirit of the law may just give a warning or forgive the act.  Many people (myself included) entered into police work with the letter of the law governing our choices and our actions.  As time moved on different lights were turned on and others turned off until I reached that place where I understood the spirit of the law.
     The same could be true of my spiritual life.  When I first believed my knowledge, wisdom an experience was limited (like it was in my various careers) and showed in my application of the Biblical truths.  My sensitivity to the spirit was  often lacking and my witness showed.  As time went by that sensitivity to the spirit increased and the letter of the law decreased and grace increased more and more.  As I grow older the need for examining my life has increased while the need to examine others lives has decreased.  It's not that my desire to love God and others has decreased.  Rather, the desire to love God has increased as well as my desire to love others.  Grace instead of the law has been forefront in my life for years.  Yet there are times when the letter of the law takes over.  Every Christian has his or her limit.  For instance, I will not renounce my faith in Jesus.  That's a concrete line I haven't and won't cross.  Yet there have been times I have not been true to my faith in Jesus.  My desire sometimes isn't reflected in my actions.  Yet the desire remains. 
     While the time has gone quickly, I, now at 62, am a different man than when God first changed me.  I'm not perfect nor am I even close.  Like knowledge, the more of life I have experienced the less of life I know. And so, one light bulb gets turned on while another gets changed.  There are many times when it seemed as if all my light bulbs were turned off.  Sometimes that was true ad there was no light shining out of me for the world to see.  Ultimately I began to see that the turning on and off of the light bulbs was really up to me and my choice.  Sometimes my desire to sin turned off the light bulbs.  Sometimes my desire to share Christ turned on the light bulbs.  The light bulbs belong to God.  So should the right to turn them on and off.  When I take matters into my own hands I am playing god with my life.  When I leave God to be in charge of the light switch, He is Lord of my life.  It's important for everyone who claims to have Jesus as their Savior to check out who has their hands on the light switch.  Ultimately, there is only one light switch.