Sometimes the mirror isn’t the problem.
Sometimes it’s the light.
You know that moment in the morning —
you’re driving, steady and half-awake,
the world still held in quiet.
Then, out of nowhere,
the horizon splits open.
A single ray spills across your windshield —
so sudden, so blinding,
you can’t see a thing.
Instinctively, you flinch,
searching for the road that was clear a second ago.
Your pulse jumps.
Your hands tighten.
And then, as your eyes adjust,
everything glows again.
The same sun that startled you
is the one that guides you forward.
That’s how truth feels when it’s alive.
I tried to hold up a mirror about service —
that real service should make us feel whole, not better.
But my timing missed the dawn.
The light came before the eyes were ready.
And when it does, even grace can sting.
Presence, I’m learning,
is not about how clearly you see another —
it’s about how gently your seeing arrives.
Truth offered too soon becomes heat instead of warmth.
But without the light, nothing grows.
So maybe the spark was never wrong—just early.
Because sometimes that flash,
the one that blinds before it blesses,
is exactly what wakes the soul.
The Reviver doesn’t stay distant.
Christ draws close enough to burn and heal at once,
close enough to wake the ache,
to love without flinching,
to shine without apology.
Grace is not always gentle —
but it is always near.
Afterword — The Nature of the Spark
Revival rarely begins in harmony.
It begins in disturbance —
in that instant when the light floods your lane
and your heart forgets what to do with itself.
Not every soul welcomes the flame that frees it.
Some blink, some burn, some turn away.
But grace does not apologize for shining.
The Christ of proximity lives in that space —
close enough to comfort,
close enough to confront.
So I will not fear the recoil anymore.
The spark is not rejection.
It is recognition —
the soul remembering
it was made for light.
And if that means I spend my life
walking with the morning sun in my eyes,
so be it.
Better to be momentarily blinded by truth
than to live forever in the dark.