Matthew 5:16 (NIV)
In the same way, let your light shine before others, that
they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
"Why go out tonight? There won't be a soul there."
As the minister watched the rain lash against the window,
the voice that spoke inside him sounded reasonable enough. It was one of the
stormiest nights of the winter. But somehow he felt he must conduct that
evening service.
So he put on his raincoat, took his lantern, and stepped
out into the blackness. The water almost blinded him as he plunged into the
teeth of the gale. On and up he plodded until he came to his church, which
stood on a high hill along the Scottish coast. When he had opened the door, he
set the lantern on a window sill, and then sat down to wait for his
congregation--a congregation that never came.
At last, seeing he would be quite alone, he sang a hymn
and knelt and prayed. Then, his duty performed, he locked the church and went down
the hill. Had it all been a waste of time? The parson wondered.
But the next morning he heard a different story. The
night before, when the storm was at its worst, a fishing vessel had been trying
to make the harbor. The skipper was floundering around in the blackness until
he saw the small light in the old church. Without that lantern the ship would
have surely been carried onto the rocks. But thanks to those steady beams, the
pilot had brought his boat safely to port. It was a lesson to the minister.
After that, he knew that any light he might throw into this world's darkness
would never be entirely lost.
Dear Lord, we pray that today we would let Your light
shine through us so the World we are in will see You thought us. In Jesus’
Name, Amen.
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