Luke 11:33-36

Posted by DJL on Oct 11, 2013 in Daily Bread | 0 comments

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar, but on the lampstand so that those who enter may see the light. Your eye is the lamp of your body. If your eye is healthy, your whole body is full of light; but if it is not healthy, your body is full of darkness. Therefore consider whether the light in you is not darkness. If then your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be as full of light as when a lamp gives you light with its rays.”

What are you looking at?

The analogy Jesus uses here takes a few twists and turns. The eye, he says, is like a lamp. If it is healthy – or, perhaps, is looking at healthy things – it fills the body with light. But if it is unhealthy – looking at unhealthy things – it fills the body with darkness.

So what are you looking at? What do you notice? And to what do you give your attention?

Headlines that show only bad news rather than neighbors doing good? The faults of others rather than their virtues? The shortcomings of family and friends rather than their loyalty? What are you looking at?

Over time, I believe, we are train ourselves to look at certain things. If we look at good things – things that uplift and inspire – we train ourselves to seek out those things and continue to be built up, be inspired, and inspire others. If we look at the negative in the world, we train ourselves always to seek out the bad.

This isn’t about being a Pollyanna and ignoring what is difficult in life. But it is recognizing that we often have a choice. There is good and bad in the world. We may notice both, but what will we focus on?

Or maybe it’s not just what we’re looking at, but how. Eugene Peterson, in his wonderful translation of the Bible called “The Message,” put it this way:

If you live wide-eyed in wonder and belief, your body fills up with light. If you live squinty-eyed in greed and distrust, your body is a dank cellar. Keep your eyes open, your lamp burning, so you don’t get musty and murky. Keep your life as well-lighted as your best-lighted room.

Well said!

Prayer: Dear God, direct our attention to those things in life that inspire and build up, so that when we encounter the darkness we may share the light you have entrusted to us to encourage other and light up the world. In Jesus’ name, Amen.