Sometimes light disappears because we quit looking for it

​A couple of months ago, when I moved into a new apartment, the gas company came to turn the gas on. Yet, even after it was turned on, I had no hot water. Turns out I had to wait for maintenance to come and unlock the closet that housed my hot water heater and then light the pilot light on that heater.

I think of people that way sometimes. They have life and blood flowing through them, yet, their light is sitting dimmed behind a locked door. A light that longs to shine but has no idea how to unlock that door.

I interact with a lot of people who have hidden lights. They have experienced things along the way that have left them feeling like they no longer have light or that for some reason their light no longer has a place to shine in the world.

Jordan Peterson says, "if you love someone, you see their hidden soul, you get a glimpse of the light they could reveal to the world if they revealed it. To act in love is to encourage that light to come forward and discourage anything that stands in its way."

I have been through periods in my life when I felt my light disappear. I have been in relationships where both parties gave up on seeking and revealing glimpses of light in one another. Lights go out in people and relationships not because there is no longer light, but because people quit looking for it in one another.

I suppose that's one reason I'm passionate about getting glimpses of the light people could reveal to the world. I know from personal experience that what looks like darkness on the outside is not always, maybe not ever, the absence of light on the inside.

I'm not sure I could ever help someone find a light that isn't there, but I do know how to unlock closets and light pilot lights. Mainly because I've been blessed to experience people looking for and finding and revealing the light in me.

If you want to act out love in a powerful way today, maybe even in spaces where you've come to doubt love any longer exists, get a glimpse of a light in someone who believes they no longer have light.

Reveal it to them, and encourage them to reveal it to the world.

The world needs more light, but light starts with unlocking some closets.

Closets we all have keys to.

The key is love.