Day 154: Using the Light of God

"Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my paths."  Psalm 118:105 (119:105)

This is an important message that many of us prefer to ignore.

I will admit, the bible as a whole is pretty scary.  There are so many books, and there are so many versions (even in the original languages).  There are so many different authors, so many different theories and interpretations, and so many words.  The book is quite heavy to hold, not only in physical weight but also in terms of ideas.

It's a testament of God's word revealed to people over a long expanse of time.  It is also a reflection of which people thought which books were important enough to consider truly sacred versus apocryphal or heretical.  In it, we can find a constant thread of meaning, expounding upon God's love in its many manifestations.

This metaphor of light is important for us to consider, for it suggests much more than just illumination.  When I think about a light for a specific purpose, I think of the many lights in our lives that have directions: flashlights, headlights, camera flashes, lamps.  These all have a light source, but then they are directed and magnified by mirrors or other tools.  The important thing about this, though, is that each of these lights serve their purpose, and they need to be put to that purpose specifically.  When we use flashlights, we need to point them to wherever there is darkness.  Headlights point directly ahead.  Camera flashes are directed to wherever they need to go in order to make a picture more clear.

In the same way, we need to learn to use the bible.  It is a bright light for the darkness that covers our lives.  One caveat, though, is that we don't know where the darkness is in everybody else's lives.  We can only point the light of the bible effectively towards wherever we need it to point.  It will guide us as we walk closer to God.  We need our light to be pointed forward always.  We don't need it to be pointing left, right, or even behind us.  We need it to be pointing us straight to God.  When we put the bible, our light, for the purpose of revealing God's love in our lives, then we will find God on our paths.

Day 143: Walking in Love

"He who says he is in the light, and hates his brother, is in darkness until now.  He who loves his brother abides in the light, and there is no cause for stumbling in him."  1 John 2:9-10

This passage highlights a truth that we ignore too many times: hatred is a gateway to many other sins.

Just at the very surface, we know that Jesus has commanded us to love one another.  It's the second of two commandments, and it seems to be a continuation of the first commandment - to love God.  We cannot walk in the light of Jesus if we are disregarding a key commandment of his.  It's very important because we need to be able to show our love in every aspect of our lives, not just our devotion behind a closed door in our houses.

Going deeper into this notion, we find that love is great because it removes any opportunity for stumbling from our lives.  We wander around, hoping to have a cure all for our problems in our lives.  Yet, here is one that is truly a solution: love.  When we hate, we put away the love that we have been shown by God.  Then, we start allowing our minds and hearts to be filled with feelings that grow in us.  These are feelings of pride, that we are always in the right; fear, that others will be better than us; greed, that we may be better than everybody else we encounter; anger, murdering everybody we know in our mind, if not in real life.  All of these feelings will grow until we have fallen so many times that we could convince ourselves that we are no longer humans made in God's image, but creatures of the Devil.

That's not the direction we need to go in.  Love is not always difficult.  If we have attached ourselves so much to the pride that compels us to hold grudges that it makes forgiveness or love difficult, then we need to evaluate our relationship with God.  We cannot be walking in the darkness of hatred and claim to be following Jesus.  We need to let go of all of these negative feelings so that we can head towards Jesus without stumbling blocks in our way.  When we truly accept the love that God has for us, then we will be able to continue in the light of Christ.

Day 142: Examples of Light

"This is the message which we have heard from Him and declare to you, that God is light and in Him is no darkness at all.  If we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.  But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin."  1 John 1:5-7

This passage should give us all hope.

It first defines how we are to live our lives.  We need to make sure that our faith manifests itself in our lives through our actions.  We teach the best and spread the Gospel the best through our actions, for that is how others can conceptualize things.  Over the past week now, I have made many Chinese dumplings (餃子 and 小籠包).  I'm a guy who likes to learn things from books, and that works quite well with most recipes I've encountered.  However, the trademark of dumplings is their pleats.  I have read countless instructions on how to perform them, but they all turned out to be disastrous and plain odd.  But, after watching one video, I was able to understand how to fold them properly.  After a few dumplings for practice (and eating, of course) I feel that I have made quite some progress.

The way we live our lives becomes a light for many who are around us.  If we demonstrate our faith, just like a video, people will be able to understand all that they have heard from Christianity.  In fact, we too will begin to understand the bible and teachings better when we live our faith.

The latter part of this passage is what should give us all hope.  It says that when we live our lives faithfully, we will have fellowship not just with God, but with everybody around us.  Now, it is amazing enough to have fellowship with God, but it must be reassuring to be in the company of the many faithful who are walking in the light.  People who live around us, going through many of our same challenges, should make us feel closer to God.  The reason why we'll be in good company is because we will all be heading in the same direction, albeit from different starting points.  When we wander without God, we will end up in so many places that are unfulfilling.  Many will actually find themselves heading backwards towards destruction.  But, when we walk towards and in the light of God, we will find all of those who are walking in the same direction.  Those people will be able to dust off your shoes, provide you with water, hand you a coat if you need one, and will welcome you to the glory of God.  We need to provide that fellowship, because it is our duty as Christians.  The light of God is God's unconditional love for all of us.  When we provide that fellowship, we will see the light grow not only around us, but also in us.

Day 089: Strengthening Light

"Not that I speak in regard to need, for I have learned in whatever state I am, to be content: I know how to be abased, and I know how to abound.  Everywhere and in all things I have learned both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need.  I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me."  Ephesians 4:11-13

Here's one of the most, if not most, popular verse in the bible.  I find that it is much more powerful when taken in the context of the letter Paul is writing.

Despite the fact that there are many things that I do not agree with that Paul writes, I still think that there are many things that he admonishes us to do.  In fact, when taking all the things he encourages (or commands) together, they seem to make up a large code of law not unlike that of the Old Covenant.  There are so many different things to keep track of, but they are all for our own betterment.  Many of the things he says are ones for us to live better with those around us, in order to strengthen our communities.  Still, though, they sound overbearing.

However, at the end of all these sorts of things, we read Paul, who says that he has accomplished many of these things.  Unlike a person wanting to boast about his own prowess, Paul actually teaches us why he is able to accomplish all of these things: Christ.

Jesus is walking all around us, following and reaching out to us.  Jesus is not following us so that he can push us down.  He didn't come into the world just to judge and condemn it.  We already have enough of that coming from our humankind.  Instead, Jesus came so that we all can be strengthened.  We have to face many challenges, and we all want to be the light for others to see, but the only way we can do that is by receiving the light in the first place.  I think of lighting candles.  A room can be full of candles, but without a lighting source, they will just stay there, filled with so much potential, but left completely still.  It is when we receive the light of Christ that we can shine and light others around us.

Jesus is right there with us, everywhere we go.  We just need to receive him as he receives us. 

 

Day 081: Building Faith

Then Jesus said to them, "A little while longer the light is with you.  Walk while you have the light, lest darkness overtake you; he who walks in darkness does not know where he is going." John 12:35

This is a poignant message from Jesus, especially as he prepares to go to the cross.

I just learned that it is a description of how our lives are so short that we only have a little while to walk in the light so that we may head in the right direction.  And, when I think about the short time that we have, I also think about how we can even learn to make our lives ones of light.

I love to study languages.  The hardest part about learning a language, in my opinion, is building up vocabulary.  There are usually so many words to learn.  Sure, there are few that you need to get by, but after getting a "survival level" in your target language, you have to start fleshing it out until you can achieve "fluency", whatever that goal might be for you.  The issue with learning vocabulary is that it is so easy to forget it.  I can learn a word now and forget it in thirty seconds.  I could learn a phrase today and forget it tomorrow.  So, I have had to figure out ways to master my mind in order to learn vocabulary.

Another image that comes to mind is working out.  From a visual standpoint, it is usually pretty obvious who spends time exercising and dieting and who doesn't.  From a personal standpoint, though, you can't lie to yourself.  When you go run for a day, you might only be able to go so far for so long.  However, after training for weeks or even months, you can build up an endurance to run quite a distance.  When you build up that endurance, you will find smaller physical tasks to be much easier.  But, when you lay off of exercise for a period of time, you realize that you have to start the training all over.  Your endurance wanes, and/or your muscles shrink.

In the same ways, I like to think about walking in the light.  We have let the world of darkness take over so many facets of our lives that we need to put in an effort just to walk towards the light, let alone in it.  We need to surround ourselves with the resources we need in order to get to the light.  And, just as Jesus was showing us in this example, the Gospel is the easiest way to the light.  We have all this guidance from Jesus to walk in the right direction.  Pair that up with some prayer and you should be set for life.

In the end, whatever the method, we have to remember that it is not instantaneous.  We need to develop our lives in faith, and we need to build up our faith like a strong vocabulary or a set of muscles.  During Holy Week, take the opportunities that are out there to build up on your faith.  Attend a few services.  Read a few devotionals.  Pray. 

Day 041: Walking in the Light

"See, I have told you beforehand." Matthew 24:25

Some of the eschatological passages in the Gospels (or anywhere in the Bible, really) can sound quite harsh because of their idea of eternal destruction and/or death to all the unfaithful.  I know I have trouble accepting many of their messages, but at the same time, there are messages like this one above, in the middle of all the images.

As Christians, I am sure that we feel entitled, many times, to a smooth and good life.  We feel entitled to a grace that means that we will just float around in this world and not have to do a single thing.  Of course, when we encounter tough times, we then blame God for all the issues.  We feel entitled to all of our own petty wishes, and we feel damned when we don't have them our way.  In our selfishness, we see ourselves as not being blessed enough.

But we are blessed.  We have an entire earth given to us.  We are given a life where we can do whatever we want.  We are blessed enough to have the will to deny everything that God has given us and all that God offers.  We are blessed with the free will to decide whether we will accept the message that Jesus has told us beforehand or not!

During Lent, we have the opportunity to celebrate our relationship with Jesus.  We have the opportunity to invest even more into our relationship.  We have the opportunity to draw closer to God.  The Bible is right there for us.  We have all the information we need in order to live a good life.  It is our choice, though, whether we will accept it as a gift - a glorious revelation - or push it away as an unwanted burden on our lives.  However, our decision whether we accept it or not will not affect the turn of events.  Jesus has told us beforehand all that is going to happen.  A long line of prophets has also revealed so much more than we can imagine about what events are supposed to happen.  We must accept the grace that God gives us in this life.  Make today the start of a journey in the light.