“Now you are the body of Christ,
and each one of you is a part of it”
I Corinthians 12:27

“Be the Light.  Change the World.”
Thursday, March 26, 2020 – by Vicki

Be the Light.  Change the World.
I’m sure that all of us can think of a time when we were afraid of the dark.  Maybe it was when you were younger and lay awake in bed at night thinking there were monsters in your closet.  Or maybe you were older and the electricity went out, and you couldn’t find even one single match to light.  For me, I remember leaving church late one night when the parking lot lights weren’t working.  There was no light coming from the parsonage, and my key fob didn’t work, so I couldn’t use it to find my car.  It was pitch black and the darkness literally felt like a wall in front of me.  I walked around for about a minute with my hand in front of me trying to find my car.  I knew it couldn’t be too far away, but I didn’t remember exactly where I had parked. Once I found my car and was able to open the door, I was surprised by how much relief that little bit of light gave me.

Light is an amazing thing; in the simplest terms, light is a type of energy. It is energy that can be absorbed, reflected, or deflected. Light is all around us, and we rely on it to brighten our world.

In 1989, President George H.W. Bush gave his inaugural speech in which he used the phrase “a thousand points of light” – referring to people, spread like stars in every community, doing good for others.

That’s what God wants each of us to do. He wants us to actively become the lights that He has called us to be, and change this world into something better than it was yesterday and the day before.

Matthew 5:14-15 says, “You are the light of the world – like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.  No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand where it gives light to everyone in the house.”

Now more than ever, God is calling Heritage to be that lamp on a stand, and now more than ever, we need to shine light into the darkness.
Ask God how you can be a light so that you can change your corner of the world.  It might look a little different now that we are under the governor’s order of “stay home, stay safe”, but there are still ways.

Send a note, make a phone call, offer to get groceries for someone who can’t get out or who is afraid to get out, use technology to reach out to someone and give an encouraging word.  Get creative. Do something for your neighbors.  Stretch yourself and do something for a stranger.

Remember the words to “This Little Light of Mine”?  Sing the verses out loud. They pretty much sum up this entire devotional and our responsibility to others.  So…..

Be the Light.
Comfort the lonely.
Inspire the weary.
Equip the disheartened.
Change the world.