Hiding under a Bushel

We all know about the power situation in Nigeria. I wake up as early as 4am every week day and most times, its darkness all around. Everything I do then, I do it with a rechargeable lamp. The lamp is old and faulty. It has two fluorescents which are now very dim and sometimes, when you put it on, you dare not put if off until you are through using it because it might not come on again until it is recharged, but I still manage to use it like that because I feel it is better than going to switch on the electric power generator so early in the morning and disturbing every one. The first thing I do every morning before I put my foot on the ground is to read my devotional, I then check my phone to see if I can afford to sleep for about 10 more minutes and if this is possible, since I cannot afford to put the lamp off for the fear of it not coming back on, I just lay it horizontally and put it under my bed. The effect: the whole room becomes dark again. It doesn’t matter whether the light is still on, the fact is that it’s been hidden someplace where it won’t have an opportunity to reflect and so the light becomes useless.
I try to relate this to the light each of us have in us. Many of us have talents and other wonderful things that can be showcased to the world, things that the world can immensely benefit from if we dare allow them reflect. We hide under the umbrella of shyness, selfishness, laziness and different forms lackadaisical attitudes, forgetting that no particular person owns this world and that we are all supposed to contribute our own quota. Because of this, no matter how valuable what we have inside of us is, both in quality and quantity, it will be useless if it is hidden.
I challenge everyone that gets to read this blog to let their light shine because there’s no use for it if it’s hidden under a bushel.