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Turn On Your Heartlight...

Kathy Dingus

 

 

 

Do you remember the huge mega-hit movie "ET" that was about an alien that visits earth and is befriended by a young boy who tries his best to help the alien return home? Well, I certainly do. It made quite an impression on me at the time of it's release and I've thought of it often (and with a smile) ever since it was released in the early years of 1980.

This alien, ET, had a marvelous feature that would be a wonderful addition to the human body! ET actually had a heart light that would do the neatest things . . . it would glow, and when it would glow you knew that ET was filled with emotion. It would glow when he was happy, sad, empathetic or felt great love. ET could also make the tip end of his long first finger glow along with his heart light and it would heal "ouchies."

One rather sad part in the movie had ET dying from the reaction his body was having the earth's environment. His heart light actually went out. It was actually restored to it's glowing former self by the empathetic tears of grief shed by the young lad who was so sorry that ET's heart light had went out and had apparently died.

Do we have a heart light? Do we even need one? Do we let others know, without a shadow of a doubt, that we love them, that we care for them, and we have sympathy and empathy for their trials, problems and grief? Do they know all this without our "heart light" glowing red, thereby professing to the world that we feel this way?

How do we show others that we love and care for them? How do we let them know we have their best interests first and foremost on our hearts and minds? It shows when we do, and on the other hand it will also show when we don't.

Jesus didn't have a heart light, yet he gave us the most tremendous example of love any one ever gave to us humans. How do we know this? He gave us love by example. He gave us love by action. He gave us love by not merely relying on words, and lip service, but by his deeds. He DIED for us. He left us such an example to follow . . . but are we following it?

When we see a need what is our first thought? What do we do? Do we mention it to someone else, hoping they will solve the problem for us? Do we simply turn our head and eyes away, hoping the problem will not be there tomorrow? Or do we "dig in" and solve it with our love . . . , love that should be inside us, if Christ resides within.

Someone commented to me that if a problem is made evident to our eyes, God did send someone to help solve it; he sent us. I think this is absolutely true.

The Holy Spirit within us will gently nudge us in the direction it wants us to go. We may be the answer to someone's prayerful plea for help . . . do we turn away? Do we let our heart light grow dim, or do we let it blaze?

I have a personal story about this in particular.

As I left work one afternoon a woman approached me and asked me if I was going to a local store in the area. I looked at her quickly, my mind on getting to my car and getting home, and told her "No, I wasn't going by that particular store."

The lady answered "Thank You", and turned around and walked away. Something inside me made me stop and ask her if she needed a ride to that store, and I did. She smiled and told me that I was an answer to her prayer, and yes she did need a ride to that store.

On the way she explained to me her circumstances. Her husband had been killed just a few months earlier, she had no vehicle, she was pregnant with her dead husband's child, and was late for work that afternoon and was praying that someone would come along and offer her a ride to work. I was stunned. I had actually just allowed myself to be used by God to answer someone’s prayer! This was the first time I had ever thought of myself being a servant to my neighbor in this way!

I dropped the young woman off at work never getting her name, but I have thought of her often and have prayed for her as well.

God uses us as His hands and His feet sometimes. He also uses us to answer a brother or a sister's urgent prayer.

At our annual Festival for the last two years we have sung worship songs to our Lord. The words to Shine, Jesus, Shine, ring in my ears, especially the line "blaze Spirit blaze, set our hearts on fire." Maybe this is referring to our own personal heart light.

God wants our hearts to blaze with His spirit. He wants His spirit to "flow and flood the nations with grace and mercy. He wants us to give our lives to others, pour out His love that dwells inside us, our hearts, into others.

Maybe we don't need an alien like ET to teach us to let our heart light glow. But we do need to let it glow.

Neil Diamond sang the theme song for the movie. One of the lines pleads with us to" turn on your heart light, let it shine where ever you go." Can we take his advice and indeed let our heart lights glow?

If we do, the world may not see a bright red glow illuminating our heart, but they will see Jesus Christ shining through us.

 

We may not get extra "credit" for letting our lights shine, but Jesus is doing the work though us by His might and power and glory.

He will constantly recharge our light, so we can continue to do His will. He's better than any battery charger I know.

He's more powerful than we can imagine... We should really glow with only His love, just as Moses' face glowed after basking in God's presence upon Mt. Sinai.

So, how's your heart light?