You are the light of the world.
A town built on a hill cannot be hidden.
Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl.
Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.
Matthew 5:14-15
I want my rose-colored, Pollyanna glasses to take away the pain. I want to turn up the volume of praise music so I won't hear the heartache, or change the channel to entertain, or read a book and escape. I want to move away from the crime, and the crowded, and the prejudice and live in an old-town community of barn-raising and pot-lucks and quilting bees. But I can't seem to get away from this world.
Perhaps because this world is in me. It is part of me. It helps define me just as much as I define it. Sometimes the differences overwhelm the similarities. Sometimes the hurt outweighs the hope, and love is lost in a labyrinth of discontent. Sometimes I feel like I'm at the bottom of a half-empty glass and can't find my way to half-full. Sometimes we're on that forever treadmill, running and running away and discovering we haven't moved at all.
I can't run away from who I am, and neither can you.
Maybe it's not a question of running from, but a determination to run toward.
“Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?
May we not be of one heart, though we are not of one opinion?
Without all doubt, we may.
Herein all the children of God may unite,
notwithstanding these smaller differences.”
― John Wesley
They say there needs to be a separation of church and state, and so prayer and mention of God has been taken out of our schools.
They say there needs to be a separation of church and state, and so prayer and mention of God has been taken out of our military and our law enforcement.
They say there needs to be a separation of church and state, and so prayer and mention of God has been taken away from our legislators and our court systems.
But we are children of God; we believe in Jesus Christ as the Way, the Truth and the Life and following him has changed us. You, who are starting school, who have to follow rules and regulations about what to say and when to say it - it's ok. You will speak volumes through your actions, because Christ is in you. Remember him.
You who patrol the every-day streets, who safeguard our freedoms at home and on foreign soil, you who are trained in battle and war-weary, you who work within a roiling soup of disrespect and discontent, who dedicate yourselves to serve and protect, you who have to make life-and-death decisions in split-second time on snapshots of information - You, too, are a child of God. Christ is in you. Remember him. Pray. Nothing can separate you from the love of God, and his love will guide you. You will speak volumes through your actions.
You who sit in judgment - officially and unofficially. You who write laws and guidelines and handbooks and directions. You are a child of God. He is with you when you ask. You don't need to pray out loud. You don't need to call attention to yourself. You may carefully choose your words, but you have the gift of words and He will guide you.
You are like a tapestry, intersecting threads across the loom of your life. The warp threads, the foundation of the weaving, is Jesus. He stabilizes you; He strengthens you; He is your constant. The weft threads, woven in and around, the changing colors, the design - those are you. They are your experiences, your beliefs, your knowledge, your emotions; they are the different sides of you. Together, warp and weft, you are strong and beautiful - a work of art. A child of God.
The warp cannot be separated from the tapestry. You cannot be separated from your Savior. And this world needs you to be strong and beautiful. Different and unique. A work of art. A child of God.
Jesus said to love your enemies. He said the world would not be fair. He said treat others as you would like to be treated. He said love God and love your neighbor.
This is our warp. This is our foundation. This is what we should be running toward.
Heavenly Father,
In these days of Fergusons, and shooters at Army posts, and mountaintops in foreign places,
in these days of separation of church and state, of violence and evil -
help us to remember that we cannot be separated from you.
Help us to embrace you in the stillness of listening and to find you in the heat of arguing.
Help us, even in the hard stuff, the want-to-run-away-from stuff.
Help us to glorify you through our words and our actions.
Help us to do what Jesus taught us to do.
Heavenly Father, come.
