Today's daily lesson comes from a Mark chapter 4 verses 21 and 22:
21 And he said to them, "Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket, or under a bed, and not on a stand? 22 For nothing is hidden except to be made manifest; nor is anything secret except to come to light."
Over the years, I have been greatly influenced by the Quaker tradition of the "Inner Light". Their understanding is that we all have a light -- a spark of Godlikeness -- within us. This light is sometimes in other traditions called the "soul" or the "logos" or the divine. The deepest and often most difficult human task is to come to believe that we do indeed have this light -- this buried treasure of God within us -- and to allow its flame to bear forth its gift to the world.
Yet the light cannot be compelled to come forth. It must be wooed, and cajoled, and given time. We see this in the book of Genesis when the first thing God said was, "Let there be light." The statement is one less of divine fiat than one of permission giving. Not, "Make light appear right this minute," but rather, "LET there be light. LET it happen. LET it come about." We have no idea how long it may have been between God's permission and the light's answer. And it really doesn't matter. What matters is that at some point the light answered the call and came forth.
My friend Jay is an electrician who runs his own business. In his office there's a sign hanging up which says, "God said, 'Let there be light.' We're just following orders."
The soul's ultimate job is to follow the order, to answer God's call, to discover the inner lamp and to bring forth its light -- it's gift, our gift -- and to finally live into the fullness of the lyrics we've all been singing since childhood:
"This little light of mine,
I'm gonna let it shine,
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine."
No comments:
Post a Comment