When God’s light hits hard, don’t flinch — stand firm
In the intensive care unit, the room went still except for the hum of the monitors and the shallow rise and fall of my wife’s chest. She lay pale from anesthesia, her body marked by decades of procedures.
Mike Tyson famously said, “Everybody has a plan until they get punched in the face.” I knew what I believed — or thought I did — until reality landed its blow. The light of Christ still shone, but in that moment it felt blinding as I strained to process what was right before me.
Headlines trumpet confusion as wisdom, cruelty as strength, and lies as truth. God’s light exposes all of it.
Christian, what do you believe?
That question often barges in under fluorescent lights at zero-dark-thirty, in the antiseptic air of another hospital ward. I have carried it for four decades. The answers I had given in calmer moments felt almost foreign. What felt solid now seemed strange in the glare of suffering — like when our surgeon told Gracie to shield her eyes before flipping on the switch during early rounds.
Light can blind — at first
The light can be startling — even blinding. Nathan’s words to David were blunt: “Thou art the man” (2 Samuel 12:7, KJV). In an instant, the light of God’s truth flooded David’s soul. He wasn’t confused by darkness — he was undone by holiness.
That first rush of light leaves us blinking, unsure of our next step. I’ve watched how often believers steady one another in those moments. Many recall stumbling in the dark, but fewer notice how many flounder in the light.
Paul did. On the road to Damascus, he was blinded by Christ’s light. For three days, he couldn’t see, eat, or drink — helpless until another believer, Ananias, prayed over him. Paul didn’t start his ministry standing tall; he began flat on the ground, unable to move without help.
Step from a dark room into sudden brightness, or bask in sunlight only to move into shade, and your eyes scramble to adjust. The same happens when God’s word exposes what we’d rather not see or illuminates what we can’t easily process. As C.S. Lewis once said of the sun, “By it, I see everything else.”
But learning to live in the light takes time. Lewis captured that same disorientation in “The Last Battle,” when Eustace stepped unwittingly into Aslan’s country through a terrifying portal. What lay ahead looked strange and even jarring, though it opened to something unimaginably wonderful. But as friends came alongside him, his fear gave way to awe.
The beauty hadn’t changed; only his ability to stand in it had.
The man in Mark 8 felt this too. When Jesus touched his eyes, he blinked into daylight and said, “I see people, but they look like trees, walking.” He knew the light was real, but the world inside it looked strange. He needed another touch before he could see clearly.
Are we willing to be light?
Our culture knows the disorientation but refuses the cure. Headlines trumpet confusion as wisdom, cruelty as strength, and lies as truth. God’s light exposes all of it. Which is why we must ask: Christian, what do we believe?
And am I willing to live as light in a world stumbling in darkness? Am I willing to be Nathan, speaking truth that wounds in order to heal — first to myself and then to others? Am I willing to be like Ananias, walking toward a Saul who once hated the faith and offering the touch that restores his sight?
What I’ve seen is that Christ’s call doesn’t stop with stepping into the light; it presses us to keep walking in it — and to carry it to others.
The psalmist wrote, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Not a floodlight for the road — just a lamp for the next step. Step by step, not sprinting.
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Some, like Paul, even knew ahead of time what he would suffer. Yet God gave grace — and even a glimpse of glory. The vision didn’t erase the hardship but rather reshaped how Paul endured it.
The famed hymn writer Fanny Crosby understood this better than most. Blinded as a baby, she said, “When I get to heaven, the first face that shall ever gladden my sight will be that of my Savior.”
Until then, Christ’s call remains: “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden.” A lamp doesn’t hide under a basket. A beacon shines so that others can find safety.
A call to stand firm
On this four-decade journey as a caregiver, I must preach to myself daily: “Stop floundering in the light!” Take a breath. Stand firm on the ground it reveals.
And once I’ve found my footing — usually with another steadying me — I’m called to help the next person who’s still blinking in the brightness.
The complaint, which alleges the Cleveland Clinic excludes white patients in favor of minorities, may trigger a federal investigation.
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VAERS chart shows a shocking result of COVID vaccines
For the longest time, anyone – including medical professionals and scientists – who dared to challenge the effectiveness of the COVID vaccine was censored, silenced, and banished to the realm of crazy anti-vaxxers.
However, now the tides are turning as more and more evidence surfaces about the reality of the rapidly developed COVID vaccine. The same companies that once shoved the vaccine down our throats, swearing that it was 100% safe and effective, are now backtracking.
“Last week we talked about the Pfizer scientists admitting the heart disease coming from the vaccine. This week the biggest study so far ever done on the global safety of the vaccine has just been released, and [the CDC] too is now admitting to severe illness, death, and lingering long symptoms,” says Pat Gray.
No longer can these companies deny that the vaccine is “causing problems neurologically … blood problems, and heart-related conditions.”
“I've got a chart here that's going to blow your mind, Pat,” says Keith Malinak before displaying the following data from VAERS (Vaccine Adverse Event Reporting System), managed by the CDC and the FDA.
“These are VAERS’ reported deaths by vaccine between the years 1988 and 2021 … over thirty years of data,” says Keith. “All of the deaths from vaccines (not the COVID one) are on the left,” while the COVID vaccine “accounts for half the deaths” even though by 2021, it had only been in circulation for one year.
What’s perhaps most upsetting is that despite this data, the CDC continues to tell people “to go get it,” says Pat.
To hear more, watch the clip below.
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