Why are moths so suicidally drawn to light and flame? Most scientists believe that it has to do with how the moths find their way around. It’s called “Transverse Orientation”. Moths use distant, fixed points of light like the moon as beacons to navigate by. So they know which way to fly by the angle they are flying at in relation to the moon.
When moths encounter closer points of light, like electric light or campfires, it messes with their navigation systems, and they become totally disoriented. Their “radar” is scrambled, so to speak, and they end up, more often than not, flying directly into the light source. This results in the tragic deaths of millions of moths because they lose track of their fixed, distant light source which to navigate by.
While sitting with God on the current LENT topic of “Turning” toward God, it struck me firstly that the term “turning” means that by its very definition, you are orienting yourself in one or another direction. On cannot turn in two directions at once. We pick a point, and turn towards or away from it. We pick God over our orientation on food, TV, friendships or relationships. Or not. Whatever we pick though, it is critical to think about the moth analogy here- one cannot have more than one fixed point of orientation. As the verse on money, for example says "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money."
With the help of the Community I was in, I came to realize that in order to succeed in following Jesus, the one Fixed Point I wanted, I had to turn from a whole bunch of "artificial lights" around me. And I dare say it's a lifelong reality as a follower of Jesus. There are always attractive lights around- lights that look brighter, shinier, warmer or cooler. I've learned that the only question really worth considering is: How badly do you want to get burned. No hellfire puns intended.
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