All buildings and towers require some form of Preventive Maintenance (PM). PMs ensure that equipment and facilities are kept in satisfactory operating condition and because they are key to avoiding breakdowns or malfunctions, they must be scheduled periodically. However, back in the days when lighthouses were powered by oil lamps and clockwork mechanisms, Preventive Maintenance was not in any lighthouse keeper’s vocabulary let alone on any schedule. In fact, the concept of PM did not come into existence until 1950. Taking care of a lighthouse back then was not exactly a 9 to 5 job either. It was more like a pre-dawn to dusk responsibility and in some cases, they required 24-hour monitoring. That is why performing any type of maintenance was pretty much a part of the daily routine. But lighthouse keepers did much more than just periodic checks. They also made repairs to the tower as needed and had to always be prepared to respond to any emergency, including shipwrecks. Plus, and most importantly, they had to ensure that the tower’s light and lens were clean and operable. After all, the main purpose of a lighthouse was and still is, to guide and warn ships at night and during stormy days.

As a lighthouse, you and I also have a keeper, the Holy Spirit. When we were born again into God’s kingdom He not only entrusted us with the light of His salvation, but He also sent his Holy Spirit to take up residence in our hearts. Like a lighthouse, we too must endure the fury of life’s many storms. Storms that will eventually cause spiritual and emotional wear and tear. For this reason, we will always be in constant need of divine PM. But thank God for the Holy Spirit who resides in us and is available 24/7. He is there to keep us in check morally, respond to any spiritual wrecks and make the necessary repairs, restore us back to God, and ensure that His light continues to shine brightly in and through us.

As a result of modern technology, today’s lighthouses do not require round the clock maintenance. Oil lamps and lenses have been replaced by solar or electric powered bulbs. Unfortunately, unlike physical lighthouses, we cannot be upgraded to shine independently. First of all, because the light we have is not our own. It is God’s. Therefore, He is the One who powers it and controls it. Second, because God knows our hearts better than we do, He is the only one qualified to do preventive work on it. And lastly, we are incapable of repairing ourselves when we suffer the shipwrecks of sin and/or life’s many storms. Again, this is something that only God, the healer of souls, has the power to do. The Bible says that we are temples, lighthouses if you will, where the Holy Spirit dwells. That is why He is and always will be our lighthouse keeper, the keeper of the light!

Prayer: Almighty God, Thank you for your mercy, which has delivered me from darkness and brought me into your glorious light. And Thank you for your grace, which has allowed my heart to become a place where your Spirit dwells. Help me not to hinder the work of your Holy Spirit in me. For it is only through Him that I can be restored, empowered, and continue to shine your light to a world in darkness. In the glorious name of your Son I pray, amen. 

SCRIPTURES
“This is how we know that we live in him and he in us: He has given us of his Spirit.” – John 4:13

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you?” – Corinthians 3:16 (ESV)

“God, who knows the heart, showed that he accepted them by giving the Holy Spirit to them, just as he did to us.” – Acts 15:8

“And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast.” – 1 Peter 5:10

-All Scripture is quoted from the NIV except where specified.