This week in church we talked about what/so what/now what?
These are three questions to use when approaching scripture, and of course, they could be used for any scripture or wisdom text.
What do you encounter/what strikes you today? So what? Now what?
This week in church we talked about being visible.
Specifically, the discussion was all based around the text about not hiding your light and being a city built on a hill. We talked about how it can feel like this text is telling you to just run around and tell everyone your a Christian, but maybe that's not quite it. Maybe it's more about not hiding who you are from the world and letting your light (whatever that light may be) shine.
I thought about how vulnerable it is to let yourself be visible, especially if you are authentic about who you really are. If I thought of myself as a lamp and I had a choice about where I would get placed in a room, I would like to be just a little bit covered. Maybe I would get one of those funky lampshades that kind of blocks a good chunk of the light, or stack some books around me. Just enough so that a little bit of a light gets out, and if people see it and are interested they can come over and share more light, but it's not just out there, naked, for everyone to see. (Then of course, I would get jealous and annoyed at everyone who was out there, shining their entire light to the world, and tell myself they were a show-off or something, even if they were just letting themselves be visible.)
Also, I got this image of people all being surrounded by a cloud of light bulbs. The more authentic and open we are, the more bulbs are lit. Some people walk around emitting a ton of light, and others have dark bulbs following them through life.
This week in church we talked about comfort versus rest.
Comfort is about cushioning a tough situation or numbing ourselves . It lets us continue, sure, and it makes something that is difficult easier to endure, but it doesn't really help our hearts and souls at all.
Rest, on the other hand, rejuvenates. It doesn't change the situation or make it externally any easier, but it buoys our ability to manage it and heals our hearts and souls.
Sometimes comfort is the only option available to us and we take what we can get. Sometimes we just have to get through a thing. But the more we can find actual rest, the better.
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