Daily Lesson for March 1, 2018

Today’s Daily Lesson comes from Mark chapter 4 verses 21 through 25:

21 He said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under the bushel basket, or under the bed, and not on the lampstand? 22For there is nothing hidden, except to be disclosed; nor is anything secret, except to come to light. 23Let anyone with ears to hear listen!’24And he said to them, ‘Pay attention to what you hear; the measure you give will be the measure you get, and still more will be given you. 25For to those who have, more will be given; and from those who have nothing, even what they have will be taken away.’

We are meant to shine. 

We are meant to use our gifts and our talents and bless the world with all the goodness we have been blessed with. 

This is not showing off. It’s not getting out of our place. And really, who gets to tell us where our place is, anyway?  Sure, we can be humble and unassuming. But when the host of the banquet says, “Move on up a little higher,” we ought to move. 

We ought to move; and we ought not to be ashamed of doing so. We ought to move, and we ought to trust ourselves in the limelight.  

Marianne Williamson once wrote so insightfully:

“Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate. Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure. It is our light, not our darkness that frightens us most. We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous, talented and fabulous? Actually who are you not to be? You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people will not feel insecure around you. We are all meant to shine, as children do. We were born to make manifest the glory of God that is within us. It is not just in some of us; it is in everyone and as we let our light shine, we unconsciously give others permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our fear, our presence, automatically liberates others.”

The light in us was meant to shine. We were meant to shine. It honors neither our light nor the giver of our light for us to settle for remaining dull and inconspicuous and in the world just as we were born.