Light Throwers: Why We Need Them
In recent years I bought flashlights that started out working fine but all of them eventually would not stay on. They would flicker for one second and become useless for what I needed them for. I was left in the darkness. Thankfully, I finally purchased a quality brand and have become satisfied.
When it comes to shedding light on something, we all want deeper satisfaction. We want consistency along with something that shines light long enough to see what we need to see. Otherwise, the light does not shine long enough to see.
Like those flashlights, many are looking for answers or information to shed light on important things. We are starving for wisdom in a world drowning in technology and information. We need people who shed real light on things as so many sources of information are like those initial flashlights, they flicker on for a second but leave you in the dark. Some of these darker sources seem to do this on purpose, while others only do it through sheer ignorance.
According to the Merriam-Webster dictionary the word context means:
“The parts of a discourse that surround a word or a passage and can throw light on its meaning.”
This year is an important year to slow down, pay attention, be slow to speak, quick to listen, and to find those who are actually throwing light on situations that resonate with what is really going on. I call them Light-throwers. Light-throwers bring meaning in the midst of our meaning crisis.
Light-throwers will even bring context within things we thought were important, but within a larger context, weren’t. I am talking about people who understand what the meaning of life is and how to make sense of things, like the difference between unnecessary suffering and necessary suffering. They throw light on the purpose of life and what it has to teach us in every moment. These are things that set everything in a much larger context by shining the light we crave to see from within.
Find those people. They are here, along with the ones that are working within society to bring genuine goodness to the world. If you are not among them, go into the world and you will find them.
We need them to neutralize those who use out of context tactics to deceive people, whether through ignorance or intention. Whether its political power and the media’s infatuation with making Donald Trump look bad, (this is not an endorsement) or a company trying to get you to buy meaningless products, or a religious message full of misguided understanding about God, people who take things out of context are working as con-artists. Many will do well to pay little attention to the news as you learn the importance of the immediacy of your own life and learn to listen to a Voice far deeper than the many clamoring voices literally paying for your attention.
Your attention is highly valuable and the cost of not really having it yourself is worth more than money.
We must find the Light-throwers, those who shine light on the actual rather than the distracted, fake, or meaningless. Light-throwers understand context from a higher place, like a light set on a hill. People from above and below can see this light when they know where to look. While others try to throw darkness or get people to hide their lights, Light-throwers light up the skies with truth that expand our horizons.
When looking for Light-throwers look for people being crucified. This comes when discernment understands the one crucified as so for the wrong reasons and not for the cause in which they intend to free others. When they are lifted up for the world to shame and condemn, they are actually bringing Light in the midst of darkness in order to redeem and set free. One key is to look for in these Light-throwers is that, when mistreated, do not mistreat in return. When crucified, do not crucify in return. These are those that shine light in the darkness without making things darker even if their being misunderstood initially appears to do so when people consider the negative reaction to them from others as darkness.
To be clear, Light-throwers are not afraid to speak boldly in truth but they do so in a way that understands what comes around goes around and so they invite people to get out of the cycle of retaliation. This freedom of non retaliation is the way of Christ, the Way of bringing a higher context to a world without a clue of the context of their own life stuck in judgment, sin, and death. This is vastly important to understand. We are to not repay evil for evil as we learn what it means to love those who we admittedly disagree with for right and wrong reasons. If we get this context, we throw light on all things, therefore inviting others to at least see the higher meaning they long for, but often resist.
How then might we learn to see and know who is a Light-thrower?
First, ask that your eyes may be opened. Go ahead, right now, out loud or with the most intention your heart within has to offer. Ask that you may see in the Light. Ask that you be guided to those who bring ultimate context to our world.
Second, learn to pray. Prayer is more about listening than it is talking, however, talk if you need to. Is someone even listening or are you talking to yourself? Dear one, God is listening and talking at the same time and the whole world shifts when you do this, even if slightly.
Third, learn gratitude and thankfulness. Gratitude sheds light on otherwise obscured truths about your existence and the world. Learning to sow in gratitude will reap dynamic results, even for anyone in the midst of pain.
You have just met a few Light-throwers.
Their names are Humility, Prayer, and Gratitude.
There are more out there under different names and many that are embodied in the lives of people you know or will soon meet. Listen close to their voices, to what they are really concerned about or saying, and watch the lights come on for a sustained amount of time to see what is really going.
Once you know the context, the text of your life begins to fill out asWords become flesh and the Light shines in the darkness.
-PH
