Let Your Light Shine

The season of Advent is drawing to a close.  The great feast of Christmas draws nigh when we will again celebrate the birth of the Christ Child in a lowly stable in a small insignificant town more than two thousand years ago. 

One of the ways in which I join with other Christians to mark Advent is to light candles on the Advent wreath – four candles for the four Sundays of Advent which surround the white Christ Candle at the centre of the wreath which is lit on Christmas Day.  The light of these candles is most appropriate as it symbolizes the light that is coming into the world at Christmas – the darkness has been overcome as noted at the opening of the Gospel of John, “The light shines in the darkness and the darkness did not overcome it.” 

There are many associations that we can draw upon when we think about candles beyond those on the Advent wreath.  Candles were used on the first Christmas trees when they were introduced to England by Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.  These were replaced by electric lights fortunately but I know of people who still use candles on Christmas trees which can be done safely if proper protocols are followed.  Of course, there are the candles on birthday cakes which increase in number every year and the birthday cakes if us Baby Boomers are becoming conflagrations. An opportunity to make a wish for the coming year. 

Candle lights still are a powerful symbol of lighting the way and, as it says in John’s Gospel, overcoming the darkness of this world.  There are many songs and hymns which have a theme of lights and candles.  Two of my favourites are, This Little Light of Mine, and Jesus Bids Us Shine which are both from my childhood.  Here’s the chorus for This Little Light of Mine:

This little light of mine - I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine - I’m gonna let it shine
This little light of mine - I’m gonna let it shine
Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine

Perhaps the power of the song is the repetition of some simple lyrics.  It certainly is easy to remember and has a message that is hard to miss.  Here’s a link to the song on YouTube to brighten your day, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCN893hzueQ.

The other favourite of mine as I noted is Jesus Bids Us Shine.  Here are the lyrics for the first verse.

Jesus bids us shine with a clear, pure light,
Like a little candle burning in the night;
In this world of darkness, so we must shine,
You in your small corner, and I in mine.

I always think of this one as the introvert’s theme song.  In my most introverted I like to think of myself being able to let my light shine in my small corner where I am safe and sound.  It was knowingly or not the theme of my life growing up where I could be myself in my small corner and still let my little light shine.  I sometimes still like to retreat to my small corner and recharge my batteries – true introvert that I am.

In any case I hope you will let your little light shine in the darkness of this world and remember it is better to light a candle than to curse the darkness.  May you be Blessed this joyous Christmas time.

  

Discerning the Right Road

One of the themes in much of my life - you might call it a guiding principle - is to find the correct road that I am supposed to be on.  This has been front and centre at some times and at other times it has not taken on a prominent role but it has always been there if I pay attention to it.

This road has often seemed to me to be a road less travelled to borrow the phrase from M. Scott Peck and Robert Frost, as I have seemed to be the odd-person out in many aspects of my life.  However, I have come to know when I have chosen the right road and when I haven’t usually as a result of where my choices have taken me.  When I take the correct road, it is a step on my journey to become the person that God intends me to be.  There have been many missteps and wrong roads taken as well as correct one throughout my now seven decades of life.  So, given the goal of choosing the right road in my life, you might ask how I know if a road is the correct one.  One of the main ways of doing this is through the God-given gift of discernment.  I believe that everyone has the gift of discernment and as with all gifts it can be strengthened when it is used consciously and intentionally.

There are many ways in which we can discern if we are on the right road.  As an intuitive-feeling person on the Myers Briggs Personality type one way I use is if the choice I made feels right to me.  This can be tricky as sometimes my ego can confuse what my desire is with what my true feeling is.  This requires reflection and assessment of other abilities such as sensing which is not my strong suit.  Occasionally I will have help in ways that are more direct.  One such way is through what is called synchronicity.  This is a concept developed by Carl Jung for what can be called meaningful or significant coincidences.  One example of this is when I had been interviewed for entrance into the MDiv program at Huron College with the intention of it leading to ordination as a priest.  After the interview I turned on the car radio and the program playing was an interview with three people who had chosen to answer to call to ordained ministry later in life.  I discerned this to be a sign I had made the correct choice. 

There are many ways in which we can discern where we are being called in our lives – this is only one way.  What is helpful in strengthening the gift of discernment is to pray.  I was given a prayer for discernment which I find helpful and which I use at the beginning of Spiritual Direction sessions which I lead.  I will close today with the prayer:

O God of all, you give so abundantly to your people.  As we enter into a time of discernment, we ask you to walk with us.  Help us to listen to your voice in the midst of our thoughts, ideas, and suggestions we hear.

Give us the wisdom to weigh options, the strength to accept other possibilities, the trust to give it over for your guidance, and the hope for a holy outcome. 

Your love is unconditional and we know that your desire for us is that we find the best for our growth, health and well being physically and spiritually.  We desire to live a life full of your grace.  We open our hearts and minds to you.  Amen

May you be blessed to discern the right road for you on your journey.  

 

Awake You Sleepy Heads

I am receiving daily Advent reflections from the Sisterhood of St. John the Divine (SSJD) which is an Anglican holy order.  I find this to be very thoughtful and helpful in travelling my Advent journey.  The reflections each have the title “Awaken”.  I believe that this is a very good way to make that Advent journey – to be awakened. 

So, what does it mean to be awakened or awake i.e., to wake up?  Being ‘woke’ has come into popular parlance recently, usually as a pejorative by people on the right who use it to criticize those – usually classified on the left – as allowing their ideology to rule their lives and have overriding concerns about sexism and racism and other rights for minority groups.  One source I found on-line, Wikipedia, defines woke as, “an English adjective meaning ‘alert to racial prejudice and discrimination’ that originated in African-American Vernacular English.”

 So here we have the essence of being awake.  We are aware of what is going on in the culture and by inference in ourselves.  What then does it mean to be awakened in Advent.  What are we to wake up to?  First of all, let’s explore if we need to be woken up.  After all, don’t we wake up every morning and greet the world?  I must admit that some mornings I am more awake that others but I am still awake.  However, if you stop and consider what happens to us when we are awake i.e., not asleep, does it mean that we are always - or even often – aware of the world around us – the world we are in the middle of – and how we respond or not to it?

I think that we all have had experiences where we realize that we are not aware of some things in our lives.  We might have had the experience of going into another room and then forgetting what we intended to get.  Or we may all of a sudden become aware of certain things that we had not been aware of before.  Some of you might know that I ended up buying a new car this summer when we were at our cottage in Prince Edward Island.  I had not intended to buy a new car but circumstances dictated it.  The only car - almost literally – available on the Island that would suit us was an SUV with more bells and whistles than I could ask or imagine.  I had never thought I would be driving an SUV.  Since then, I have been very conscious (awake) of how many SUV’s there are on the road.  That did not enter my consciousness until I was driving one.  We screen out a lot of what goes on around us as it would require more energy that we can manage to be awake to everything around us most of the time.  It takes a lot of psychic energy to be conscious of ourselves and the world we live in.

So, given that we are not awake to life and ourselves in that world – at least in part, what does it mean to be awake to our Advent journey?  I think another way of asking that is WWJD or What Would Jesus Do?  We are preparing for the birth of the Christ Child who will be born again on Christmas Day.  Jesus showed us what God’s Kingdom will be like when it is established on earth.  Here is today’s Awaken from SSJD which speaks to this:

Amidst our turbulent life, any concept of a peaceful kingdom may seem like a pipe dream and acting on the fruits of the Spirit – especially peace, joy, and generosity, may seem like a ‘big ask’ at times. In Sacred Spaces: Stations on a Celtic Way (2001), Margaret Silf describes sacred spaces as “crossing places and thresholds [of growth] … [that] offer … openings into new stages of becoming who we really are” (p.136). 

 

Certainly, Advent is one of these sacred threshold spaces. Advent is also at the intersection of the chronological time of our daily lives and Kairos, the appointed time of God’s action – in this case, the coming of Jesus. How we greet this intermingled time and let it mold us further into who we really are is the ultimate challenge of Advent. May God bless you richly as you rise to meet this challenge.

 

May you have a blessed Advent journey.