Have you ever wondered about the originals of the expression, being in the limelight? A quick Google search reveals that white light is “produced by heating a piece of lime in a flame of burning oxygen and hydrogen”. Well I’ll be saved (I like this much better than I’ll be damned, my friend).
Fantastically metaphorically creative
Actors centre stage were said to be in the limelight: a clever writer coined this phrase to refer to a public figure and thusly, being in the limelight, became a figurative way of describing someone who is centre stage in realms other than the theatre. We humans are so fantastically metaphorically creative, aren’t we?
The limelight
Do you have a propensity, an inclination, to be centre stage in your life? Do you want others to observe you, admire you, have all eyes watching you out of curiosity for what you will say or do next? Do you, dear reader, crave the limelight of life? Here are my self-assessing questions; perhaps you can ask them of yourself too?
Do I crave the praise of men, or the approval of God?
Do I perform for applause, or desire the glorifying of God?
Do I want to be in the limelight for my own egotistical delight, or am I willing to have Gods light shine through me for the saving of souls?
Do I serve God?
Can I be trusted to have the well being of others take over my thinking and saying and doing, rather than being self-serving when I find myself in the limelight? Do I serve God and from his love, my fellow man?
Considering the limelight
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| The Light has come into the world |
I am considering the limelight today… sometimes it shines on me and I cower in the corner. Don’t get me wrong dear one, I like attention, otherwise I would not publicly display my work. My hiding comes from fear, of my own overblown sense of worth. I am not worthy to be followed, idealized, fashioned after. I am one of you; we are the created. There is One though, that I proudly follow, worship, and fashion myself after.
For him, I will
For him, I will do anything: bright lights, dim theatre, front row and centre, back of the bus, solo on the highway, in a crowd… anywhere, anytime.
Jesus is the Light: no lime required to make him bright white.
