Let Your Light Shine

“He also said to them, ‘Is a lamp brought in to be put under a basket or under a bed? Isn’t it to be put on a lampstand? For nothing is concealed except to be revealed, and nothing hidden except to come to light. If anyone has ears to hear, he should listen!’”  Mark 4:21-23

My Dear Brothers and Sisters,

Each one of us has a calling on our lives, something that dwells deep inside us, it calls to us from somewhere not of this earth. This calling is the will of God for our life. If we listen, we can hear the calling. We can hear it more clearly if we stop listening to the external world, and take time to quiet our mind’s constant worry, and just sit quietly with our heavenly Father. As it is written “Be still and know that I am God,” Psalm 46:10. In the stillness you come to find that call. For those of us who have been in the middle of the day-to-day struggle to survive in today’s modern society, it may take some time to quiet our mind, but if we are patient, our calling will be revealed.

Taking the time to quiet your mind may mean that you find a place that is absent from all external distractions. It may mean finding a place in nature such as a walk in the forest, or near a lake, no matter the place, it must be still and quiet and peaceful, so that you may listen without the noise of our busy technological world interrupting what it is that Our Lord is trying to tell you.

When we let the light of our soul shine out to the rest of the world, we are doing God’s will. When we find that activity that seems to take over our sense of time and space, we are doing God’s will. We become what it is He wants us to be in this life. I have often called this “revelation” if you will, our soul work. I have come to know that when we do our soul work, or God’s will, we accomplish what Paul instructed us to do when he writes, “Do not be conquered by evil, but conquer evil with good.” Romans 12:21. By letting our inner light shine we can allow the good of our Lord out into the world, thus replacing the darkness that finds many who have not found the light that is within. As Jesus tells us in the Gospel of Luke, “The kingdom of Heaven is not coming with something observable; no one will say ‘Look here!’ or ‘There!’ For you see, the Kingdom of Heaven is within you.” Luke 17:21.

When we can find what is within, and let that knowing into the world, we are thus replacing evil with good. We can become examples to others in how they might better serve our Lord and heavenly Father. By letting our own light shine, we can spread joy and goodness to those who may be suffering in the darkness that has found them, we may be able to lead them away from that darkness and show them the light of the world, who is Jesus Christ. Thanks be to God.

Yours In Christ,

Br. Michael