A funny thing happened on my way to the outhouse one night. Several of you have read some of my stories on my blog and know that my late husband and I developed a campground in Arkansas that was used as a Christian facility.

In the beginning of this ministry, we actually lived in an army surplus tent on 68 acres of undeveloped land and had an outhouse. For those of you who might be city folks like me, it is a small shed away from the living quarters for those who do not have indoor bathrooms. I did have a donated luxurious stainless-steel pot in that outhouse. But having been raised in the city of Little Rock, outhouses were foreign to me.

At that time, the non-profit organization was just getting started so the donations were few. My husband took a part-time job at Wal-Mart and I took a job washing dishes at a restaurant. (We didn’t want full-time jobs, because our goal was to invest all of our time in the ministry.) Anyway, one night as I finished washing the dishes and mopping the floor, the owner was in a hurry to close so I didn’t have a chance to go to the bathroom before I went back to the camp which would have normally been on my list of things to do before heading back to the woods!

It was a twenty-minute drive to the camp from the town and by the time I got there, I really had to get to the outhouse. There was no moon that night, we had no nightlights, and the darkness was powerful. As I drove into the campground, I remembered we had a flashlight somewhere in the tent. So, I left the headlights on the truck on till I found the flashlight, and then I turned the truck lights off and walked back to the outhouse.

By this time, I could hardly wait to get there. One problem was that the flashlight had been dropped and the face of it had to be held in place in order for the light to shine. So, as I tried to pull down my jeans and hold the frame on the light, an unpleasant thing happened. I dropped the flashlight in the hole of the stainless-steel pot!

The story didn’t end there. I made my way in the dark back to the tent. Now at this time we had one extension cord that ran 200 yards to an electric pole. The refrigerator and one other appliance could be plugged into it such as the TV, a coffee pot or an electric skillet. Well this night, I chose to turn on the television because it gave out enough light to light the tent while I waited for my husband to get home from work. The part-time jobs gave us different hours.

Pretty soon I heard the rumble of the jeep coming up the road and then stop but, he didn’t come in the tent. I sat wondering what had happened and then he appeared at the back side of the tent. His first question to me was: Have you been to the outhouse tonight? “Yes,” I replied, “why?” He said, “Did you know there is a light shining up through the hole in the outhouse?” I had to confess, not only had I been to the outhouse, but that I had dropped our only flashlight in the hole!

Can you just picture this dark night: no moon, no stars, no outdoor lights and all of a sudden you see a bright light shining up through a hole?

Jesus is that for us: a bright light in the midst of evil and darkness. He is there to show us the way to heaven and to show us the way to live our life above the filth of this world. As we allow God to be the light in our lives, we can show others the way.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without Him, nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it.” John 1:1-5