dark corners and slashes of light

Every person’s life has dark corners and slashes of light… a realization that has made me reticent to talk about “sin” in any context other than my own.  Every self-destructive behavior that alienates us from another, every carping criticism leveled at a group or individual, could be called sin. 

Some people deal with sin by diving deeply into holy texts and then creating stricter rules.  But those rules often say more about the transgressions that they see in the world around them than the transgressions that they find in the dark corners of their own hearts.  We don’t like shining the flashlight into our own corners.  This notion humbles me.  For if I’ve drunk living water from the heart of Jesus, then living water should also flow from mine, and from my lips as well.  Why would I dwell on condemning, when that is not the water that I’ve imbibed from my redeeming Lord? 

We need to be vessels for a light brighter than our own.  We need to move in closer to the failing folks around us; because, if we have the light of Christ within us, we bring that light with us, not by shouting but by shining.

We do not own the light.  The light emanates from the love and compassion that Jesus had for us when we were hiding in our own dark corners—the compassion he had for me in my own sin…and still does--the light that slashes through the wounds of love on his back and the pierced holes in his hands.

Love, Liz 

“We’re called to be kind to people—not because they earned it but—because Jesus has been inconceivably kind to us.”                                    Beth Moore

“It is a serious thing…to remember that the dullest, most uninteresting person you can talk to may one day be a creature which, if you saw it now, you would be strongly tempted to worship… There are no ordinary people.  You have never talked to a mere mortal…it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub and exploit.”         
                    C.S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory

 “Glorious things of you are spoken, O city of God…The Lord registers the peoples, ‘This one was born there.’”                                        Psalm 87:3,6

“O Lord, the house of my soul is narrow; enlarge it.”       
                    St. Augustine

“Your inner perfectionist needs Lent…Being right and being good all the time is wearying.  In the dust, you’re simply beloved.”    Chuck Degroat