The moon is tidally locked. What this means is that the time that it takes for the moon to make one full rotation around its axis is roughly equivalent to the time it takes for it to make one complete revolution around the Earth. In other words, a day and a month on the moon are pretty much one and the same. The upshot is that the same side of the moon is always facing the Earth. The moon does receive plenty of light from the sun throughout its day, and some reflected light even from the Earth, but because it is always oriented towards the world, it goes through phases where it is either partially or completely cut off from the light of the sun. Like the moon, we sometimes end up spending all of our time oriented towards and focusing on the world. We become blinded by the craftiness of men and grow less than valiant in our testimonies. We still receive some light from the Son, but often allow our worldly concerns to eclipse His light and we get lost in the shadows. We cannot serve two masters. The world is glorious and beautiful. It has many wonderful and exciting things that can tempt us to be always focusing on it until we get to the point where we become tidally locked and forget that every good thing we see in the World is merely a reflection of the light of the Son. We should not be satisfied with only a half or a quarter or a crescent or a sliver of Christ’s light. It should not take us a whole month of being distracted and obsessed with things that are of no eternal worth for us to finally come around and remember our Savior. The moon experiences moonquakes as tidal forces from the pulls of the sun and the earth crumple and crush the moon's crust as they each fight for control. We are likewise crushed and crumpled as we both try to give into the temptations of the world and answer the call to follow the Son. If we truly want to receive the fullness of the glory of the Son, then we have to tear ourselves away from the gravitational pull of the world and valiantly commit to face and orbit the Son of God and love Him with all of our heart, might, mind, and strength.
