Cracked

May the blessing of light be upon you,

Light on the outside, Light on the inside.

With God's sunlight shining on you,

May your heart glow with warmth,  Like a turf fire

that welcomes friends and strangers alike.

May the light of the Lord shine from your eyes,

Like a candle in the window,  Welcoming the weary traveler.

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I want to be a person

Of hospitality

I want to be a person from whose eyes shines

The light of love

I want my compassion to be so complete

It is like a beacon

Drawing people

Welcoming them

Into a place where they are safe

And accepted

I want to have a heart that glows

With the warmth of that which I have first received

Holy fire

Sacred love

Love received , love given

It is the Sacred way

Sounds simply

But its not

Sometimes the “Anthem” plays through my mind

Ring the bells that still can ring, Forget your perfect offering

There is a crack, a crack in everything (there is a crack in everything)

That's how the light gets in

It  seems odd sometimes

that my desire to be a heartening

presence should be rooted

not in strength and purity

but in brokenness.

Jesus is our example

How was Jesus the light?

Sure he gave us amazing teaching, words to live by,

Sure, he performed miracles

But is that how Jesus was the light?

It seems to me that Jesus was the light through the way he touched the lives of people

Through the way he touched, and loved, and restored, and lifted up

The sick, the sinful, the poor, the hurting, the outcasts

And he was the light, most of all, by dying on a cross

By being battered, and beaten, and, yes,

Killed

Jesus who changed the world, and opened the door to the Sacred

Not through power but through brokenness

It is when we are struggling in the dark

When we are stumbling around

Needing light

Needing love

Needing God

Hungry, seeking, wounded, and full of cracks

It is then that the light finds its way into our souls

It is through our cracks

Through our brokenness, our need

Our hunger, our seeking

That the light gets in

And that is also how the light gets out!

We share the light

Not through power

Not through strength

Not by us being a “perfect offering,” by buying into the “purity project”

We share the light not when we stand on spiritual pedestals and proclaim our truth as the truth

Not when we tell everyone around us how bad or evil they are

Not as we judge and reject, not when we are strong, and quite often arrogant…

But when we let the light we have received

shine back out through the cracks

It is how we are in the darkness

It is how we are in our pain

It is how we are in our failure

It is how we are in our weakness

That most reveals the light in us…….

And it is in this way

That we become

A welcoming person, in whose presence

People can find the freedom, to be themselves.