Sat. February 11, 2023
lean in toward the light
the rev. anne williamson
You are the light of the world! How do we shine when surrounded by darkness – the mornings are getting a bit lighter, as are the evenings, but it is still winter! How do we bring light when confronted with the catastrophes of life – whether a devastating earthquake in Turkey and Syria or temperatures well below zero in a place where a number of folks cannot afford to heat their homes or don’t have homes to heat? How might we be beacons of light to our friends who are in the darkness of loss and struggle? Where do we turn when we are the ones struggling in the darkness?
My spiritual director offered me this prayer and it speaks to me in this moment as we ponder what it means to be ‘the light of the world’:
Jesus, Beloved Friend,
I come before you today in need of hope.
I need hope for a calm and joyful future.
I need hope for love and kindness.
I pray for peace and safety.
Some say that the sky is at its
darkest just before the light.
I pray that this is true, for today seems stormy and dim.
I need your light, Lord in every way.
I pray to be filled with your light.
Help me to walk in your light,
and live my life in your light.
In your name I pray, Amen.
The call to be the ‘light of the world’ is the call to walk in the light, to lean into the light. This movement is so much a part of contending with the darkness around us, when the day or the days (weeks, months?) seem stormy and dim. Carrie Newcomer’s song, ‘Lean in toward the Light’, encourages that work of leaning into the light, and in her words ‘practicing resurrection’:
‘Today is now, tomorrow beckons
Lean in toward the Light
Keep practicing resurrection
Lean in toward the Light
The shadows of this world will say
There's no hope why try anyway?
But every kindness large or slight
Shifts the balance toward the light’
I am reminded of the words of the prophet Micah from Sunday Feb 5 – ‘what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God.’ May it be so.
Blessings,
Anne