There is a light that shines in the darkness, which is only visible there.
~ Barbara Brown Taylor
A light shining in light may not be visible. A light shining in darkness is very visible.
If ever feeling overwhelmed by darkness, look for the Light of Christ. It’s present, and it’s shining bright.
Great reminder, Evan. Thankyou!
Of course we can be in constant communication with those we know and who respect us but neither Jesus, St Paul (nor Mrs Eddy) encouraged us to only communicate with those who respect us. Each of these pioneer thinkers recognised the need for us to embrace those in need of the Christ who may be suffering or otherwise challenged. For our prayers to mean something they need to actively reach out to embrace and nurture those in need.
I am not sure that I agree with Barbara Brown Taylor’s statement, although I know
what she is meaning.. If we are seeming to be walking in the darkness, when we
look for the light, it will be seen moire readily – it cannot be missed because it totally displaces the darkness..
But I do believe that as we walk to the best of our understanding in the light of what we are learning and praying with, the Christ will come to us, and the light that the Christ shines upon us will be really tangible- a radiance above the sun and daylight, because it will light up our consciousness and spiritual understanding which heals. This is the light I am praying for, but I refuse to accept that there is any darkness in God’s radiant creation filled with the light of Love.
I see that this lady has written a book in which she is advocating that we learn to
walk in the darkness. Perhaps she means that when all seems darkness, we can know
that the light will shine as we turn to God. I haven’t read her book, so I can’t really know
what she is getting at.
We have a lovely hymn called “Walk in the light” (No. 3670. THE FIRST VERSE IS:
Walk in the light, so though shalt know
That fellowship of love
His spirit only can bestow
Who reigns in light above.
and he last two lines:-
For God by grace shall dwell with thee,
And God Himself is light.
I look forward to the comments.
The light of love shines everywhere.
Interesting. The meaning of this quote could be: “Man’s extremity is God’s opportunity”, as Mary Baker Eddy reminds us. Thank you, Evan, and all of you for your comments.
“The dawn of spiritual light” By Barbara Vining. From the May 16, 2016 issue of The Christian Science Sentinel:
https://sentinel.christianscience.com/shared/view/1fw4pu1vco0?s=copylink
A fascinating story from Barbara Brown Taylor about Jacques Lusseyran, a blind French resistance fighter who wrote about his experience in a memoir called And There Was Light. Excerpt:“Since becoming blind, I have paid more attention to a thousand things,” “Lusseyran wrote. One of his greatest discoveries was how the light he saw changed with his inner condition. When he was sad or afraid the light decreased at once. Sometimes it went out altogether, leaving him deeply and truly blind. When he was joyful and attentive it returned as strong as ever. He learned very quickly that the best way to see the inner light and remain in its presence was to love.”
From The Christian Century, April 2, 2014:
https://www.christiancentury.org/article/2014-03/light-without-sight
That is a very interesting article, J – from the book I saw advertised when I looked her up.
His experience certainly brings out the spiritual dimension of God’s creation, and he
earned a great deMaggieal about that light that shines on all of God’s creation. Thank you for
sharing it.
Sorry – my name got misplaced in mid-word of my sentence and the ‘l’ didn’t come out before the word “learned”. The light must have temporarily gone out!
Love your sense of humor Maggie!
Speaking of Jacques Lusseyran, he wrote a second book, a collection of essays called “Against the Pollution of the I.” Chapter 5 is titled “Jeremy”. Lusseyran was betrayed when he was in the French Resistance and was sent to Buchenwald, the Nazi concentration camp. While there he met Jeremy, a fellow prisoner, who was a simple welder from a small village at the foot of the Jura Mountains, and a Christian Scientist. It is worth reading about the incredible impact on Lusseyran and other prisoners Jeremy had.
Thank you for sharing the link to this article. Appreciate the clear overview of creation and Revelations.
In this article, Vining talks about the fact that in Gen 1, God ‘divided’ the light from the darkness—they do not exist together. Then she said “and note this: The evening and the morning were the first day.” I thought, so? I’ve read that many times. But……I never really stopped to think about the significance of that—there is no night in between! Lots of good ideas here. Thanks.
Maggie, to me, I think what Barbara Brown Taylor means – is
Sometimes we seem to have reached an all time low …
complete darkness. We have no place to go, but in a different
direction than what we Seem to be in. Perhaps that is what is meant
by “the light that is shining in the darkness”. When everything seems to
be going well – light within light, we go merrily through life without this
seeming darkness, but when things seem their darkest – mind in mortal
being seems to be prevalent, I believe she is saying that – it is Then that
we see the light and turn to it, to see a different approach. Like when the
earth is in darkness, night … it doesn’t mean that the sun is not shining.
The sun continues to shine whether we see it or not. It is our perception
of it that seems like it is not shining. But just as the dawn always appears
after night, so is light always there for us, even if our so-called “mortal”
eyes can see it not during hours of night (or what Mrs. Eddy describes
as “darkness; doubt; fear” (Glossary S&H) She also defines Day as being,
“The irradiance of Life; light, the spiritual idea of Truth and Love. ‘And the
evening and the morning were the first day’ (Genesis i. 5) The objects of
time and sense disappear in the illumination of spiritual understanding, and
Mind measures time according to the good that is unfolded. This unfolding
is God’s day, and “there shall be no night there’ “.
Thank you, Angel – that is very well put, and makes good sense. to me.
Reading Ms. Taylor’s article, I found it to be the very antithesis of CS, not to mention depressing; it makes the argument for the reality of accidents, goes to great lengths to excuse, even praise blindness, and as in this quote,
“In seminary I was taught to interpret those stories [healings of the blind] as teachings about spiritual blindness, but no matter how you read them it is clear that Jesus heals only a very small percentage of those who ask for his help” infers that healing can be limited.
To me, matter is enthroned, for example, in the following:
When a sighted friend told me she had been to a workshop where she learned how to listen to trees, I was taken aback.
“What do they say?” I asked incredulously.
“You don’t want to know,” she replied ruefully. Acid rain, pine beetles, clear-cutting developers—what did I think trees talked about?
Talk about darkness–as if God’s light would include any such things. So, nope, I found nothing uplifting at all in reading this excerpt and I would hope one challenged with blindness would turn to the Christ, Truth, instead of going to great lengths to justify it.
I also found those bits not good to read, Nan, but I thought that his perspective had changed from seeing materially, to perceiving things mentally in their spiritual beauty. I was hoping that in the end, he would have his sight restored according to Christ’s teachings – seeing things normally but appreciating them as thoughts instead of things, and as ideas of Soul, instead of the objects of sense. He was a good deal of the way there. He had a big challenge to face, and he remained hopeful and positive, and found much comfort and enlightenment.
I think quoting others with thought provoking ideas does not mean we are embracing the authors as prophets or Scientists in Mrs. Eddy’s sense. Our foundation remains the pure revelation of divine Science, but we can learn so much from the spiritual teaching that relies on metaphors and symbols to translate science in terms the human mind can begin to discern. So grateful that class instruction taught me to discern between the absolute and relative statements in SH… both are needed. Mrs. Eddy speaks of God as divine Principle (absolute) and also of God as a tender Father-Mother. Similarly we love the 23rd psalm that states “though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for Thou art with me.” Love to all.
Thankyou Evan, for this Spiritual Light Message, also Thankyou J for the articles you shared , I was very moved by them. love to all,
Thank you, Evan.