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Today's Scripture
14“You are the light of the world. A city built on a hill cannot be hid. 15No one after lighting a lamp puts it under the bushel basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all in the house."
*Matthew 5:14-15, NRSV
Spend some time, before proceeding to read, meditating prayerfully on the above passage. You may choose to do an analytical meditation or Lectio Divina.
Wisdom Story
In the movie I Am Legend (2007, Warner Bros.), Dr. Robert Neville, played by Will Smith, thinks that he, living alone in New York City, is the last surviving human after a cancer cure mutates into a world-wide plague. He is mistaken. There are others, such as Anna and her son, Ethan.
After saving Robert from what appeared to be certain death, Anna and Robert take a brief rest at his home. They talk about why people must fight on.
Anna looks at a mantle and sees a portrait of Robert's late daughter, Marley. Anna asks about the name. Robert tells her that his daughter was named after the reggae musician Bob Marley. Anna looks bewildered, for she has never heard of Bob Marley. Robert can not believe it. He tries to jog her memory by singing from one of Marley's hit songs, "I Shot the Sheriff." Anna shows no signs of recognition.
Frustrated, Robert goes to his CD player. He puts in one of Marley's albums. As the song "Stir it Up" plays, he tries to explain the appeal, saying, "He had this idea, this kind of virologist's idea. He believed that you could cure racism and hate, literally cure it, by injecting music and love into people's lives. One day he was scheduled to perform at a peace rally. Gunmen came to his house and shot him down. Two days later, he walked out on that stage and sang. Somebody asked him, 'Why?' He said, 'The people who are trying to make this world worse are not taking a day off. How can I? Light up the darkness.'"
Comments
A story from the early Church is as follows ...
A brother questioned an old man saying, "What good work should I do so that I may live?" The old man said, "God knows what is good. I have heard it said that one of the fathers asked Abba Nisterus the Great, the friend of Abba Anthony, and said to him, 'What good work is there that I could do?' He said to him, 'Are not all actions equal? Scripture says that Abraham was hospitable and God was with him. David was humble and God was with him. Elias loved interior peace and God was with him. So then, whatever your soul desires according to God, do that thing, as well as guard your heart.'"
Letting our light shine in a dark world is the good work we are to be engaged in, at all times, whether in devotion alone or in activity among others.
We are only to do, always, "whatever our soul desires according to God." "According to God" is living from and for the cause of the Whole in God, in and for and through whom God graces all to spiritual life according to the openness to receive that grace.
Then, we are to keep guarding the heart. The heart in the early Church was the center of will, not feeling. We are to sustain a diligent watchfulness over the will by protecting from intrusion by thought and act that can turn the will from surrender to the Spirit Within.
We will be each a light in our particular way. Each tint of the One Light of Good will be both particular and, at the same time, one work with the good work of all others, and God.
Spiritual Exercise
(1) How do you guard your heart?
(2) How do you see God gifting you to be a particular light in a dark world? Are you faithful to being that light? Explain.
(3) How do you see your times in private devotion contributing to your being a light in the world?
(4) How do you see your activity among others contributing to your private devotion?
See any major on-line bookseller for his book An Ache for Union.
For replies and biographical information, and submission to "The Light Shines" daily devotionals ~ a ministry of Christ Community United Methodist Church, Punta Gorda, FL, see next page:
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