Light Pollution

Light pollution is the presence of unwanted, inappropriate, or excessive artificial lighting. It is because of light pollution that many of us who live in cities can barely see more than a handful of the brightest stars when we look up at the night sky. Just as light pollution obscures or renders invisible almost all of the light that filters down from the heavens, we are living in a time where spiritual light pollution is obscuring or rendering invisible almost all of Heaven's light. We are constantly being surrounded by the presence of unwanted, inappropriate or excessive artificial lighting. These lights, these artificial sources of happiness or excitement, can crowd out or block us from receiving the spiritual light our souls so desperately need. The need to flee from Spiritual Babylon has perhaps less to do with the dangers of being corrupted by temptation than it does the danger of missing out on all of the light and knowledge that God is pouring down upon us because we are so smothered in artificial light that we can't see it. Taking time to pray, to fast, to read and study our scriptures, to partake of the Sacrament and to attend and to serve in the temple is the equivalent of driving out to the mountains, far from any artificial light sources and gazing up in wonder at the billions of lights that are visible once we have escaped the stifling clutches of light pollution. When we make this effort to separate ourselves from our artificial lights, we will be amazed at how much of Heaven's light we can take in.