no more ray-bans, oakleys, etc

The other day, a friend of mine used me as a fleece. She had been looking at doing something, but she did not know if it was really what the Lord wanted her to do. So, she came up with a way to make my response to a question "tell" her whether she should do it. Funny thing was, my answer was not a black or white answer, so it did not help her! She then shared with me why she was asking me. We both had a righteous laugh about her ruse.

Then, from what could only be the Holy Spirit (because I had never even thought about the situation before), this was my response: You know, many times we pray asking the Lord to give us an answer, to show us the light. When he does just that, making the answer shine brightly before us, we grab our sunglasses quickly out of habit. We are so used to the darkness we are in, that it can be painful to see the light, the answer from God. So, we must take off the shades, look into the light, and follow the direction that it leads. It can be painful, but He is in the light so we will never be alone.

We went on to discuss the situation and she said she would pray more about it. Later that evening, I found an article about her initial 'fleece' question for me -- so I forwarded it to her. I heard back from her today that she took off her shades and is ready to move on.

Now I need to work on removing my permanently installed sunglasses from my own head.