Luke 11:33-36

33.  "No one lights a lamp and hides it or puts it under a basket. Instead, everyone who lights a lamp puts it on a lamp stand so that those who come in will see its light.

34.  "Your eye is the lamp of your body. When your eye is unclouded, your whole body is full of light. But when your eye is evil, your body is full of darkness.

35.  So be careful that the light in you isn't darkness.

36.  If your whole body is full of light and not darkness, it will be as bright as a lamp shining on you."

Q.    How many psychiatrists does it take to change a light bulb?

R.     One—but the bulb must really WANT  to change.

OK, it's a lousy joke.  But it reflects a truth that is shown in this passage.  If the light that is within you—the intent of your heart, your will, your understanding—is dark, there is no point trying to see.

Jesus has a gift for hyperbole.  The phrase "place where it will be hidden” (cellar, in other translations) is a translation of the Greek word from which we get our word "crypt."  If you don't want to see the truth, your understanding is about as useful as a light bulb in a coffin. 

The eye, in the physical realm, is the primary instrument by which we understand things.  We say things like, "I see what you mean."  This shows us the important of "seeing" in the physical sense—and also in the spiritual sense.  But if you can't see—or won't see—then what good are eyes?

In the spiritual realm the same is true.  If you can't, or much more likely won't, see the evidence you will never be convinced.  It's stunning how our society has become accustomed to "debunking," "deconstructing" or otherwise treating all spiritual truth with a cynicism that refuses to see.  We, as a society, have decided that there can be no truth.  Therefore, the evidence for it becomes invisible.

The result is simple but not surprising.  Since we can see no truth, we assert that there is none.  Since our eyes are darkened to the truth, we cannot see it, and therefore we have concluded it doesn't exist.   But how were our eyes darkened?  By the brilliant assumption that truth can't exist—and notice how easily it is now proven.

Facts, however, are nasty things.  They can be debunked, done away with, deconstructed and ridiculed—but like Edgar Allen Poe's cats, prematurely interred, they come back howling.  And with an equal capacity for upsetting the fine haired logic of the politically correct.

So much depends upon your willingness to see.  The universe is nothing but a collection of bright images on your eyeballs, if you will it to be so.  But open those eyes, and imagine what you might see!

Q.    How many atheists does it take to change a light bulb

A.  One.  But they still don't see the light.