I'm processing out loud today.
Today's ponderance: "be a light"
I've said it. I've prayed it. I've encouraged it. What the heck does it mean?
Specifically I just got back from Pursat province in the west with this lovely bunch - a family that has taken me in and taught me to cook and swear and love. My friend that passed away last year was in this family, and even though he was the glue that sometimes got me invited, we've grown closer since his passing.
It was my first ever overnight road trip with a group that didn't speak any English. It was also my first night sleeping as Khmer sometimes do - all together, with no mattress, and outside.
As a side note, I promise there were an equal amount of men present besides the groom but they already got a table to start the highly anticipated drinking portion of the evening.
Jesus was sometimes direct, sometimes expository, sometimes rhetorical, and sometimes allegorical. "Don't hide the light you have under a shrub...", "...let your light shine before others...", "...believe in the Light so that you are then children of that Light...". You still have to figure out the tangible aspects on your own.
And it can vary. Can't it?
You know what a light wasn't necessarily? Turning down beer, or being friendly. Two very common occurrences even in people with "no light".
Two very common ideals of other followers of Jesus that will surely show the world their light.
This group I was with will mention even in casual conversation "darkness". Its common in Cambodia. They have a sense of dark. Darkness. Being a light should be easy then, eh? Hm.
I know a lot of answers in my head, but I'm not going to type those out - I'm going to leave this open-ended and invasive.
How do you be a light?
I have an idea that "light" isn't recognized as quickly as we'd like to think sometimes. It takes more intentional effort.
