As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead.
I was just reading an interesting article about candle burn marks on the wood beams and walls of ancient buildings. The article goes into a long history of the candle and its association with funerals, church rites, and daily life. No one knows for certain what the burn marks were for but they may have been there to ward off evil spirits. As I read through the rather long text I was taken back in time to the fourteenth century and reminded about how much I take for granted in this day and age.
At night our house is full of light. Little glowing lights are found everywhere. From the nightlight in the bathroom to the alarm clock on the nightstand. Need to make your way to the kitchen at one in the morning? No problem! Even the thermostats have glowing lights on them. There are little light markers everywhere not to mention the glow given off by the streetlights outside.
Once I took my family to visit a friend’s cabin in the mountains. We had never been there before and had no idea what to expect. When we arrived the sun was shining brightly and the property had a friendly air about it. In the evening we were shown to our “room.” It was a little tiny room on the second floor that was almost more of a large closet than what you might think of as a bedroom. All of us settled into our sleeping bags and I turned out the light.
Rarely have I experienced darkness so profound.
Outside there is the moon and stars. Even on a dark night, there is usually a flicker of light somewhere. Not where we were. Not a glimmer or glow of even the faintest trace of light anywhere. Hike deep into the Ape Caves on Mt. St. Helens and turn off your flashlight. Wait for your eyes to adjust to the darkness and you will have a sense of how dark this room was.
The reason I mention this is because of the kind of darkness I am talking about was normal for people in the Middle Ages. Unless a candle or lantern of some kind was burning they were in the dark at night. Not having the power to light up our world would change how we think. Even now, as I write this blog post, it is dark outside. Inside, warm lights brighten every corner. In a sense, we have conquered the darkness.
Until the power goes out.
And the batteries die.
And we use up our last match.
And the candle blows out…
Without light, we are kind of dead. In the blackness of night, we are vulnerable to that which we cannot see. Even if we have a candle with no way to light it, the candle is worthless.
Faith without deeds is kind of like that. It is like a candle that can’t be lit. The potential is there, but until the candle comes alive with flame, it might as well be dead.
Application: Think of your faith as a candle. What do you do that gives off light?
Food for Thought: What do faith and light have in common?
They both have their origin in God. They both point to God. By both we see God (Jesus being light – John 8:12). By both we have life. Jesus is compared to light and it is in Jesus we are to have faith. John 1:1-18. Those are a few anyway.
Faith is always with us.
Listen….the message is there.
“Light” can be noise.
Noise man created.
A distraction.
Awareness of God’s night light and sounds and environment is only possible to experience with elimination of man’s created distractions.
Awaking at 2:00 am camping at Killian Creek on the side of Mount Adam and walking out of your tent ….the body and soul is set afire with the brilliance of the “light” of creation. Your senses come alive in a “natural” manner. You are overcome with the light.
The light that was always there but unseen due to the noise of man. The light that is of God.
Feather,
Thank you for sharing your memories of Mt. Adams! I really appreciate the insight into “static” of things that distract us from God’s light.
Blessings!
I drove my brother, sister and 93 yo mom to Portland today to attend a memorial service for a 46 yo man related to us via a thin outer branch of the family tree.
I was a PK (preachers kid) and grew up attending many, many, many funerals of people I did not know or people that attended dads/our church and of course had the normal experience of funerals of family and friends that inevitably occur over time.
Later in my life these organ playing, casket viewing, somber events thankfully became celebrations of Gods light for those that had let His transforming light into their hearts. Those services where no obvious signs of light or outward profession of faith were present, the service became an interesting exercise in spiritual verbal gymnastics for my dad or the pastor on deck trying to weave in a gospel message for those attending. It was challenging it seemed, not to be too obvious about the uncertainty of a persons faith, since truly only God knows who’s hearts want to be and will be with Him in heaven.
Today was different and trumped every one of the funeral or memorial experiences I had notched into my memory belt to date. On this day there was a profound absence of light.
There were also many “firsts” that all of us experienced in today’s service that shocked our spiritual senses and pricked at the truth in our hearts with the delicate touch of a hatchet.
We longed for the pastor (moderator, cheerleader, philosopher, poem reader) to lovingly bring forth the Good News to a hurting and most likely lost group of people attending. but sadly it was clearly not within her heart to do so… and the darkness from our earthly perspective prevailed.
Tonight we prayed for the folks attending the service knowing that only God could take such a crude and spiritually crushing service and somehow speak into someone at the service despite this shallow, purposeless, disturbing dark afternoon where the absence of Light seemed to have an eternal palpability.
Ok, cathartic session over.
RM
Dear RM,
Thank you so much for sharing your experience. I am not sure what to say except that I think what you point out is very important. The light that Jesus brings to the world is a spiritual light. He offers the light of hope in a dark world. You remind me that walking in the light is not an excuse for forgetting those still in darkness. I will join you in prayer for those who have yet to see the light.