Turn on the Light
Rev. Don Withers
Matthew 5:14-16 “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do you light a lamp and put it under a bushel basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light shine before all people, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is heaven.”
“Let your light shine.” Ummm. But what does that mean? What IS my light?
Well, from a spiritual perspective, light means ‘understanding and wisdom,’ and Unity understands ‘inner light’ to be that understanding and wisdom we have received through our indwelling Spirit ‘resident in the center of everyone’s being.’
So everyone has a light to shine - from their own wisdom and understanding of life. However, everyone’s personal life can have different understandings and wisdom depending on how much they are in tune with their own personal understanding and wisdom from their own indwelling spirit.
(Song) ‘”This little light of mine, I’m gonna let it shine. Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine.”(3)
This is a popular song in churches, youth camps, Sunday schools, etc.
As usual, songs are filled with words, and we sometimes miss what the words really say to us.
Three words pop out at me with this song: little, mine, and shine.
Mine: I know that I have some understanding and wisdom in my life - my light.
Little: This verse believes my light is little, by some standard.
Shine: Yet my wisdom and understanding of life are worth sharing with others.
It's a fun song to sing. But Jesus does not believe our light is little.
“You are the light of the world. Let your light shine before all people.”
Do you consider that your light is little? Not up to standard?
I was thinking about a proverb: “It is better to bring a light than to curse the darkness.”
My version is: “It is better to seek our light within than to be wandering in the wilderness.”
Oh yes, um, wandering in the wilderness. Yeah - wandering in the wilderness.
Unity’s book - The Revealing Word (paraphrasing) defines ‘wilderness’ as: symbolic of the multitude of undisciplined and uncultivated thoughts in our individual consciousness - our individual thinking.
Which may be scattered, unclear, unproductive, self-defeating, wandering rather than purposeful - from our failure to tune into our indwelling Spirit and we thus lose It’s wisdom and understanding in our lives.
Well, it’s time for us to stop our somewhat random wanderings in life, and seek our way out of the spiritual wilderness. Let’s increase our light - our wisdom and understanding of our life.
We’re going to use one of the Twelve Spiritual Powers of Unity - our Imagination: “The faculty of mind that images and forms; the power to shape and form thought. Everything that is manifested was first a mental picture and was brought into expression by the forming power of the imagination.”
Now it is important to realize that the ‘imagination’ we’re referring to here is not the usual one, of dreaming, mind pictures, stories, etc. This is Spiritual Imagination, and it holds a power we often do not realize: “The power to shape and form thought.’
