Have nothing to do with the fruitless deeds of darkness, but rather expose them. It is shameful even to mention what the disobedient do in secret. But everything exposed by the light becomes visible—and everything that is illuminated becomes a light. This is why it is said:

“Wake up, sleeper,
    rise from the dead,
    and Christ will shine on you.” Ephesians 5:9-14

Ben has truly landed quite accidentally on the verse of his life here in Ephesians 5. He likes the “Awake thou that sleepest (KJV)” part because he plans on waking up the church with an alarm clock, but in the process he has uncovered the verses that put his whole life in perspective. He probably never knew this, but he lived it intuitively.

Ben, as it turns out, is a light. By simply being who he is, Ben exposes shame, disobedience, and apathy. The rest of the story bears this out, and I as the writer, can claim no credit for that. Much of what I am discovering about Ben in reading this story every day (at noon PDT) and writing these Catches is something I am only now coming to see. 

I am not that clever. I am not that smart. I did not write these things into this story. I did not plan this out. I am not a genius, but in many ways, this story is. That’s because all I did was to follow Ben. To listen to him and sometimes find him. I did not create him. I merely put him in different situations and waited to find out what he would do and what he would say. If Ben surprises you, he surprises me in much the same way. That’s why, if I write about Ben as if he were a real person I barely know, that’s because he is. And now that I look at it, these verses I picked just so Ben could set off an alarm clock in church are far more significant than just a childish prank. They are verses that reveal the meaning behind this story and behind all of our lives. Ben aims to get the whole church to Go Live! and he’s counting on all of us doing the same.

Because when we walk in the light, we expose the truth. Hidden things are uncovered. Shameful things are made known. This verse teaches that we light things up because as it says, we have become a light. This should be no surprise. Jesus told us that we were the light of the world. We are not just taking our little flashlights of truth and shining them on things, we are the light. That’s why we need to wake up, because Christ wants to shine on us and illuminate the whole world through us. And we do that simply by being who we are. That’s how Ben did it. 

Why am I saying all this just about a fictitious story? Because it’s not just a story; it’s a discovery of truth.  God wrote truth into this story and I’m not bragging about that because I didn’t do it. I thought I was writing just a cute story of a 10-year-old boy playing tricks on the church. In truth, this story is about waking up so Christ can shine on you and light up the whole world through you. 

So take it from Ben and wake up everyone. Wake up … so Christ can light you up!

In a time of great ambiguity as to whom to believe

when truth is literally twisting in the wind

and no one can be trusted

we can more easily grasp in a simple daily Catch article

what it means to

GO LIVE!

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And don’t forget to join us when we Go Live! at noon today (PDT) for the next reading of Saint Ben. Be a part of this live audiobook with discussion to follow. Click on Zoom at Noon.