On A Dark Night A Single Candle Can Be Seen From Well Over A Mile Away

I know it's become a cliche, but it truly is better to light a candle
than to curse the darkness.

A good friend of mine, noting some of my recent posts, wondered whether I was becoming depressed by taking on too many of the world's problems. 

I truly appreciated his concern, and have sometimes asked myself the same question. 

After some reflection, however, I felt  I could honestly say I generally feel more over-blessed than I do overburdened, more often energized than emotionally depleted. 

This is not because I am a better or stronger person than others, but because I've come to see myself as a small but vital part of a whole community of others who together help shed light on a dark world, who together are a million points of light, a God-illumined city on a hill.

"This little light of mine" may be of little consequence by itself, and I certainly can't claim to be a perfect source of it by any stretch,  but the world needs all the light it can get, and each of us should be sure to let ours shine rather than hide whatever light we have from view. For on the darkest night, even a single candle, I'm told, can be seen from as far away as 1.6 miles, at about the same clarity as the bright star Vega, which is over 25 million light years away in the constellation Lyra.

So together with other constellations that light up the heavens, we can each be a small but not insignificant part of a divine "light show" that offers inspiration, constancy and beauty in what would otherwise be a universe of darkness. 

Light is a metaphor for the good influence, the much needed encouragement, the kind of wisdom and enlightenment we all need to first experience ourselves and then share with everyone around us.

Letting our God-given light shine, whether in the form of a flickering candle or a flaming torch, is the least we can do.

Love is a candle whose light makes a circle,

Where every face is the face of a friend.

Widen the circle by sharing and giving--

God's holy dare: love everywhere.

- verse three of Richard Leach's Hope is a Candle

Here's a song by Chris Rice I really like. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JpkwBkHq3n8