johnmdemarco posted on February 08, 2011 07:34
I once started working at a company where a key leader told me, “These people need help. They don’t know what they don’t know.”
Sometimes our discernment truly is hindered by factors unbeknownst to us. If we position ourselves with an attitude of wanting to learn and grow, however, the resources and relationships we need often come to us.
I say this in reflection of an “a-ha” moment I had the other morning at church. I made a connection between two different scriptures in two different books of the New Testament, one I somehow hadn’t noticed before.
One scripture was offered during the worship service and was based on Mt. 5:14-16 (“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. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”).
The other was revealed a short while later in Sunday school, as we studied Luke 15:8-10 (“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one. Doesn’t she light a lamp, sweep the house and search carefully until she finds it? And when she finds it, she calls her friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost coin.’ In the same way, I tell you, there is rejoicing in the presence of the angels of God over one sinner who repents.”)
The epiphany for me was that I’m less able to find what is needed when my light is not burning brightly in the first place. In fact, when my fire is cold and my lamp stand bereft with abdication, I’m unlikely to even have the desire to seek. Allowing one’s light to shine creates the conditions for both wanting to find that which is lost, and the ability to find it as well.
When the light grows dim, we don’t know what we don’t know. We don’t know what to seek, or even that it was lost in the first place. It’s like groping for answers before knowing what questions need to be asked.
John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, once described his preaching in this way: “God sets me on fire, and the people come to watch me burn.” I pray to burn brightly for Christ in every moment, that I might seek and be sought after as well.