ARE YOU WAVING THE LAMP WITHOUT THE LIGHT IN IT? By Mercy Karumba

The Story of a watchman by Dwight Moody A story is told about a watchman who worked on a level...


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The Story of a watchman by Dwight Moody

A story is told about a watchman who worked on a level inter-crossing, on a railway section. His responsibility was to wave a lamp to signal the train-driver of the approaching train to stop, in case there was danger. One night there was a terrible accident-the engine driver and other people on board died, and the watch-man was taken to a court-of-law.

The basic question that was asked of the watchman was, “On the night that this accident took place, did you wave the lamp?”

And the watchman kept answering, “Yes I did wave the lamp sir!”

This question was asked repeatedly and the watchman gave the same answer.

After that case was over and the watchman was walking away, a friend came up to him and asked,

“I don’t understand it, the judge asked you the same question more than three times, each time with a greater degree of intensity and you kept answering with a greater degree of weakness. Did you not wave the lamp?”

The watchman answered, “Even if that question was asked a thousand times, the answer would be Yes, I waved the lamp, but there was a problem. You see, that day I was quite busy doing something else, and suddenly I knew there was danger ahead. I knew I had enough time before the train came. Suddenly, I heard the train approaching and I didn’t have enough time to put the light inside the lamp. I grabbed the lamp and waved it at the train-driver, there was no light inside of it and the train-driver went on and the fatal accident happened. So, Yes, I waved the lamp but it didn’t have light in it.”

From this story I got a really deep insight. The lamp represents you (input your name).

The light represents who we are deep inside, our inner-selves, our core-values, our principles and what we stand for. This is what makes the whole difference and helps to take control of our decisions and our lives to the extent Our Creator has given us the power to do so. Most times out of fear, frustration or just peer-pressure we fail to turn on the light of the lamp in our lives and we end up making terrible decisions that are irreversible at times. We forget that the lamp is not useful, if the light inside is not on. In other words, who you claim to be, and the principles that you talk about, if never put in to action are worthless and may indeed, end up costing us so much.

Lately, this has been a sort of struggle for me but I am now more than determined to not just call it a struggle, but to act on it. I need to wave the LAMP with the LIGHT in it!

What is that light inside of you? Would someone watching your life or the people you are interacting with actually see that light? Or are you simply waving a burnt-out lamp? Can people say Mercy truly stands for this and she keeps her word?  Let your light shine wherever you are. To read more posts By Mercy, click HERE

Photo credit: historyoflamps.com 

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