Monday, January 23, 2017

Philippians 2:14-15 -- On Murmuring and Light

"Do all things without murmurings and disputings:
That ye may be blameless and harmless, the sons of God, without rebuke, in the midst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights in the world;"
Philippians 2:14-15


What a different world it would be if we all did what we do without murmuring or disputing.  It would be awesome, but also almost unimaginable.  Can you imagine Star Wars without Luke whining that he wanted to go to Tosche station to pick up some power converters?  Our own murmurings are, unfortunately, often equally predictable.  It's definitely not an easy path to walk to overcome our own complaining natures, as we sometimes struggle to learn peace and hope and faith, and how to choose happiness.

The idea of us as lights in the world is a marvelous one, and it feels good that we could be lighting the way or lifting the darkness even a little bit for others.  To do that though, we have to make sure that we have some of that light within us, or else we are going to darken people's lives instead.  The source of our light is God, and the less we murmur, the more we can listen.  The less we dispute, the more we can learn.  God doesn't take away our light for disobedience... we lose it because we get in our own way, not being able to learn or grow or shine because we're busy complaining instead.

Today, let's focus on not getting in our own way.  Let's listen to God and work on doing as he asks instead of inventing reasons why not, or going on a rant about Tosche station, or wherever else we might rather be.  Let's embrace the present, and accept the reality in front of us, and do everything we can to make it better, and bring light even to the darkest spaces.  Let's be blameless by making sure we always heal rather than harm, and maybe working a little more on the murmuring. :)  Let's be the light in the world.

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