Let your light shine it helps us all

The following is not just an account of what Jesus said to me, but a narrative of the events that took place at church one Sunday morning back in August.

August 10, 2008

While at church, a young man spoke of his travels to third world countries. My mind immediately went to, Oh no! Here we go, another plea for money, someone with their own agenda, their own pet project that they want supported… Oh please! I thought these people; cut me a break. There are hundreds of you out there always with your hand out. I actually started to get really annoyed and thought man I should have gone to a different service, maybe even a different church today… To my delight the young man was relatively quick in his speech asking for money, so I calmed my thoughts a bit…. Now I sit in the back of the church—always have…just like in the back of the class when I was young and in school…
So now there is the regular collection. To this I gave money. Then came the collection for the young man. At this I gave nothing, and on some level feeling justified as to why I did not give…. Then after the collection, the following occurred…… really strange…

It was as if Jesus himself was monitoring all of this with me, the ever present teacher seeing that I did not learn the lesson given me and that I am sitting in the back of the class again. The following happened… the young man who spoke sat in the very front of the church, but he got up and walked to the back of the church and sat right by me (now this is a big church, and there were lots of empty seats he could have sat in, but there he is now really in my face so to say)… At this point, I am feeling a bit uncomfortable, for now the man I judged is sitting right next to me, and I can look him directly in the eye. I can touch him. We started to sing a song in church. This man and I sang together. I saw that his foot was injured, yet he knelt during consecration on the bare floor… now I am really starting to feel cheap and shallow—a real slug. Then Jesus speaks to me saying, “Do you see my light in him?” I respond, “Yes I do.”… Jesus speaks again… “Then why did you seek to diminish that light with your thoughts?”… Okay, now that cuts to the heart hearing those words. That is what I sought to do, diminish this man and his call. In doing so I do the same to Jesus… So now I am really feeling regret… and Jesus speaks to me again, this time saying, “Speak to this man, and say to him that my light is shining upon him, and may it always remain with him even when people seek to diminish him”…. Okay, now those words almost made my heart bleed with sorrow for my thoughts against this man… and I understood what Jesus was saying. He was teaching me to bless all things in his name and to never try to blow out someone else’s candle in order to make mine shine brighter… that only makes the path on earth darker, less light to guide us by…Everyone has a candle to light. The more lit candles on earth, the easier the path for us all.
(To end, I did speak to this man and said to him just what Jesus instructed me to do, and his face lit up just like a candle.)