Don't Switch Off Your Light

 

I was thinking this morning.... It was Friday evening as I walked into my room after work. I turned on the light switch but noticed the light didn't come on. I turned the switch off and on again, but still no luck. This light bulb has burnt out so quickly, I thought, as I reached to switch on another.

As I settled in, I wondered why light bulbs don't last so long these day. I remember a light bulb we had in a mum's room while growing up that never got burnt from as long as I can remember till I became an adult and moved out. That bulb must have lasted for over 20 years. Is that a strange occurrence? Maybe not, because I recently found out that the world's longest-lasting light bulb is the Centennial Light located at 4550 East Avenue, Livermore, California. The bulb is at least 121 years old (installed 1901) and has only been turned off a handful of times.

Why do some bulbs last long and others short? The reason is astonishing. The major reason for the longevity of so many longest-lasting light bulbs is because they are so infrequently turned off. Most of the wear and tear that leads to burnouts in incandescent light bulbs is caused by turning them on and off, not by burning them. Each time the bulb is turned on and off, the filament is heated and cooled. This causes the material of the filament to expand and contract, in turn causing micro stress cracks to develop. The more the light is turned on and off, the larger these cracks grow, until eventually the filament breaks at some point, in non-spectacular fashion, thus causing the light to burn out.

Like light bulbs, we glow when we do good works. If so, why do some faint in well doing and others don't? Do you frequently switch your love for humanity on and off? Is it because you feel your good is doing no good and probably wasted? Some have been good to people but their good have come back to hurt them, so they decided not to help again.

Please don't switch off your light, it is causing you more harm than good. No act of kindness, however small is ever wasted. Be like the Centennial Light by being good all the time. Being hot and cold with your love for God and humanity will burn you out like light bulbs. No wonder Galatians 6:9 admonishes, “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”

Stay hopeful. God's got our back.

Happy Sunday.

......Just the thoughts of a certain Wey Mey