Live in the Light - April 13
Today’s Readings: AM Psalm 5, 6; PM Psalm 10, 11; Dan. 2:1-16; 1 John 2:1-11; John 17:12-19
Today’s Reflection
Oftentimes, we make things more complicated than they need to be. This applies to many things, but especially in matters of faith. Complicated theologies abound, with equally complex sounding names and vocabularies. I’m going to be honest with you, learning all the ins and outs of theological concepts is not my thing. But if we break down the word “theology,” it just means the study of God—who God is and, related to that, what we believe about God.
I like the vision of what it means to believe in God, and how we are to act on that belief in God, that we are presented in today’s passage from 1 John 2: “Whoever says, ‘I am in the light’, while hating a brother or sister, is still in the darkness. Whoever loves a brother or sister lives in the light, and in such a person there is no cause for stumbling. But whoever hates another believer is in the darkness, walks in the darkness, and does not know the way to go, because the darkness has brought on blindness.” This is an elegantly simple explanation of what it means to believe in God and live in a way that is consistent with who God is and who God calls us to be: Love one another and you are living in the light of God. Hate one another and you are living in the darkness that is separation from God.
As the writer of 1 John tells us, this is nothing new—this is what God has expected of us, his children, from the very beginning of time. All of the ins and outs of what it means to be a follower of Christ come down to this: Love one another, for love is from God (as we hear a little later in 1 John 4). Each new day, as we go about our daily routines, we are presented with moments when we can choose to love or to hate—though these may not seem like momentous decisions at the time. In my experience, many of these opportunities we are given to choose love or hate, light or darkness, are small ones. Am I choosing to treat someone with dignity and respect, or to give in to my own gut reaction of anger, annoyance, or frustration? Am I choosing to see the best in someone else, or just focus on a perceived shortcoming in them? Am I choosing to give someone the benefit of the doubt, or to jump to a conclusion? Am I choosing to linger and give someone the gift of my time, or am I choosing to rush on to the next thing? Am I choosing to take time to listen with an open heart?
The theologian, Miroslav Volf, once said that “Theology is not only about understanding the world, it is about mending the world.” Living into our Christian theology is about leaning into the light, and away from the darkness, in these seemingly small choices we make each day. The more often we make a choice more in the direction of the light of God, then maybe we have made one more stitch in mending our sense of interconnectedness with one another—and, in so doing, in mending the world.
—Becky+
Questions for Self-Reflection
In your experience, what does it mean to “live in the light” of God? Whose life do you look to as an example of what it means to “live in the light” of God?
Daily Challenge
You can hear more of Miroslav Volf’s thoughts on being people of faith in a world of conflict between dark and light in this On Being interview with Krista Tippet.