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?