When I light a candle to make my kitchen more comfy, I don’t always follow the directions. Directions? For candle–lighting? Yes. According to most candle manufacturers, I should trim the wick before lighting and relighting.

I didn’t understand why until I lit an extra long wick and had a smoking candle putting off black grime into the air. Being an observant person, I decided to comply the next time. But I trimmed the wick too closely, and after that it was nearly impossible to light that candle so the flame would actually stay lit and not just flicker out.

Some people say the way to make room for illumination and true enlightenment is to ignore all thoughts and feelings, to completely empty oneself so that we think of nothing and feel nothing (at least nothing negative, anyway). Doing so will provide room for something higher to inhabit us. We are simply to be and all else will fall into place, perfection eclipsing us in the silence of minimalism and simplicity.

Perhaps my use of the phrase “be illuminated” implies that I agree. Just be and the illumination will come; we have no hand in it, God does it all.

But the irony and contrast in my mind lies in the fact that the illumination process for the follower of Jesus is not a passive “be” but an active one.

We must choose daily to want to be illuminated.

We must choose daily to lay our worries and concerns down at His feet.

We must choose daily to trust Him with our pain and questions and doubts.

We must choose daily to lift up open hands and an open heart to Him so we may receive and reflect His light.

We must choose daily to invite Him in, not so that our thoughts and feelings disappear, but so that they align more with His thoughts and feelings.

We must choose daily to recognize our hate and our limitations so we can humbly request they be cauterized by the flames of Love and Grace.

Do these choices require a stillness and a receiving? Yes. Do they also require an openness and a sense of cooperation? Yes.

Perhaps these are the ways He keeps our wick trimmed to just the right length so we are ready to be lit at anytime.