Today I share two true incidents from my teenage years, one when I was 18 and one when I was 15, that were highlights in forming who I was, what I "grew" into with the Lord's help, and what I am still becoming. Nothing in our lives happens by coincidence, but God uses encounters such as these to make His will and way known to us.
May we all be "on the watch" for signposts and people along our journey that help us to a better relationship with God or whom we can help to have the same.
Selah!
“Arise, shine: for thy light has come; and the glory of the Lord is risen upon thee.” --Isa. 60:1 (KJV)
“No man, when he hath lighted a candle, putteth it in a secret place, neither under a bushel, but on a candlestick, that they which come in may see the light.” -Luke 11:33 (KJV)
Light? How much does it have to do with peace and harmony?
How can I be light in darkness? How can the Light of the World shine through me?
I remember two distinct instances from my teenage years that had to do with following the Light of the World and His teachings, and seeking to be light myself, as He commanded me.
I was president of Truett McConnell College’s YWA (Young Woman’s Auxiliary). As this officer, I was given a free week at Camp Pinnacle in the summer of 1948 to help me prepare to lead my college YWA during the next year. Miss Sarah Stephens, beloved Georgia Woman’s Missionary Union state leader, was in charge of the camp, using her charisma, godliness and expertise as a speaker and leader to guide the young women at the camp.
We had a good week of intensive Bible and missions methods study, devotional time, challenging messages. It was the last night before we left camp. We were gathered at Lake Pinnacle at dusk for a candlelight service. Miss Stephens challenged us in her inimitable way to be light for Jesus wherever we were, whatever our calling in life. We each had a candle, and lighting it from a large candle symbolizing the light of Christ in our lives, we set our “wooden boat” candle afloat on Lake Pinnacle. It was a heart-touching and deep spiritual experience to see my candle float out with the others on that dark lake and make a bobbling though persistent light, cutting the darkness apart and allowing me to know that commitment to God and His will for me would, indeed, make a difference in the world. The YWA watchword, “Arise, shine, for thy light is come,” has, since then, been one of my life verses. Where there is darkness, the light of peace is extinguished. Where there is Light from Christ, peace takes a stronghold and makes a difference in believing hearts, and is spread abroad upon the dark sea of life.
Go back with me three years before the Camp Pinnacle experience when I was fifteen. My beloved high school teacher, Mrs. Grapelle Mock, had taken me to interview our local Choestoe/Union County poet, Byron Herbert Reece, whose first published book of poetry, The Ballad of the Bones and Other Poems, had just been published by E. P. Dutton of New York. Reece was my neighbor, and I had known him all my life, but suddenly his book had made him the subject of articles in The Atlanta Constitution and The Progressive Farmer, paper and magazine that came to my farm home. I was shy as I tried to fulfill my assignment to interview Reece for an article I was to write in the county newspaper’s School Page. I asked him questions about how he decided to become a writer, what motivated him, and what he hoped to accomplish through his book of poems. Then I told him that I liked to write—and my dear teacher, Mrs. Mock, assured Poet Reece that she had noted my talent in that direction. I shall never forget that Reece quoted the verse from Luke 11:33 and urged me not to “hide my light under a bushel.” He went on to tell me that he had been shy and introspective about his poetry, not thinking it was worth bringing to the public. Then Jesse Stuart of Kentucky saw “Lest the Lonesome Bird” published in The Prairie Schooner and helped Reece to get poems to Stuart’s own publisher, Dutton, who accepted the manuscript for Reece’s first book.
That interview with Reece set a direction for my life. What talents and abilities I have are gifts from God. What light I have to give to the world is also a gift from God. I am not to hide it under a bushel in a dark corner but, with God’s leadership, I am to share my own light with the world.
“Arise, shine, for thy light is come” (Isa. 60:1). “[Put not your light] under a bushel but on a candlestick, and it giveth light unto all that are in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5: 15-16) Selah!
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