Shine Bright!

This is it: December 21, 2012. Will the world end today? I don't think so.

Yet, today is a good day to focus on shining our brightest!

Today is the Winter Solstice (or Summer Solstice for those in the southern hemisphere). It's the day the sun reaches the furthest point and begins a journey back (at least from our perspective on Earth). It is a good day to make a change, for the better.

Here are a few of my past tweets that share that concept:

• On darkest day of the year, may we learn as light returns slow, the Light within us must continue to grow.
• On this winter solstice, remember that darkness, no matter how great, will be replaced with Light, that's never been a mistake. 
• Sunrise early on this long day gives me ample time to play and pray. 
• On summer solstice, may God’s Light brighten our lights within to face the darkening days ahead. 
• May the light of this longest day never be forgot. As the days shorten, hold on to the Light in your heart.

 Someone we know has also been sharing a grand idea. If today is the mark of the beginning of a new era of mankind, what we do today may set the precedent for the next period. We can point out all the "evils" of this world, share the bad news, look with fear or hatred on each other, and ... get much of the same.

Or we can focus on sharing the Love and Light that is within us. We can focus on finding the stories of all the kindness, goodness, love and forgiveness happening around us, helping others shine, not just bragging about our own accomplishments. We can also do something big on this day that involves Kindness, Compassion, or Love to kick-start the period in the right direction.

While the news continues to report sad events and tragedy, we should do our best to share stories of goodness that exists in this world.

This is the Season of Emanuel ~ God is with us. Let our focus - our light - spotlight where God is working in the world today, and let it shine for all!

Which would we like to see for the new era?

Which should we focus on now?

And every day of our life?

~ ESA

Kingdom Visitor (Story)

Once upon a time, in a not too distant land there was a king that loved all the people. Because he had such love for the people, he wanted them to be happy and to love each other as he loved them. One day, he called before him all the magistrates in the land and commanded of them to design a way that would best enable all the people to love one another.

The magistrates gathered and spent much time in council determining the best methods to govern the people that would make them love each other so the king would be happy. They decided on a long list of rules that the people would have to memorize and adhere. They decided on celebration days that would, by their annual repetition, reinforce the rules they established. Further, they set up a system where there would be rewards for those who obeyed the rules and punishment for those who did not.

This, they surmised, was the best way to make the people love each other.

Over the years, the magistrates instructed the people in the rules, meted out the rewards and punishments, and watched the people carefully so they knew who to reward and who to punish. In response, some of the people would either vie with each other to do the most loving acts to gain the best of the rewards, or they followed the rules minimally when they knew they were being watched, lest they face the dreaded punishments.

Then one day, a stranger arrived and set up a temporary home among the people of this kingdom. Within a few days, one of the magistrates presented to her a thick bound volume of the rules. But the stranger handed the book back unopened and, instead, took out her visa which indicated that because she was not a subject of the king, she had diplomatic immunity and thus was not subject to those rules. The magistrate tried to harass her, but she knew that the magistrate could not force their ways on her.

At that time, the king wondered how well the system his magistrates established was working. Were the people truly loving one another as he loved them? Was the system enabling their love for each other to flourish? Or were the people merely following the established set of rules because they sought individually to gain a reward or avoid a punishment? So the king decided to find out for himself. He disguised himself and went out among the people.

Where the magistrates were to be found, people performed all kinds of loving acts, helping one another and more. But where there were no magistrates watching, the poor were left hungry, the cold were left outside alone to fend for themselves, the sick were shoved apart from the healthy, and the outcasts were friendless. There was very little love here.

Then the king spied a young woman, a stranger in this land, and she was doing what the people were not, when the magistrates were not watching. She shared her supper with someone that had none, she helped carry someone's heavy load, and she welcomed the homeless into the rooms she rented so they would not have to suffer the freezing rain and falling snow. Who was this woman?

The king called court the next day and called this woman before him. "I am king of this realm," he told her, "and I have seen what you have done."

"I know of your rules may be different here, your majesty, but as I am not one of your subjects, so your rules do not apply to me."

"So you do not act as you do fearing punishment?"

"No, sir."

"So you do not act as you do expecting reward?"

"No, sir."

The king's cheeks started to glisten with tears and he stepped down from his throne and faced the woman eye-to-eye. "Then why do you do the things you do?"

The woman shrugged, "It's just the right thing to do. We're all part of this world, we should help each other."

The king stepped forward and embraced the woman fiercely!

When he stepped back he announced, "Let this be known across the land, this woman has acted with Love for her neighbor, not because of reward, not out of fear of punishment - for she clearly does not expect either. She acted simply out of the Love found in her heart. THIS! This is what I sought for my people. All I simply ask is that they love one another."

Love
thy
neighbor

Weeds and Wheat (Story)

There once was a field planted with the finest seeds of grain. The sun shown down gentle and warm. The ground, freshly tilled, remained moist with the gentle washings of the rain. Pleased with the start, the landowner left the field in charge of the field hands.

Soon the spouts began to grow, bright and green, stretching toward the sun. As the spouts grew, the weeds snaked their roots under the tilled soil and sprouted their own kind in the field. Concerned for the grain, the farm hands took action.

They heated the plants hoping to scorch the weeds. Many wheat stalks withered. The ground became dry and bitter; roots were pulled up when the wind buffeted the field.

The farmhands spread poisons hoping to kill the weeds that way. The wheat itself also sickened, many stalks never gaining the head that grain reaches in its maturity.

As a last resort in their vendetta to kill the weeds, the farm-hands viciously attacked the field, cutting down stalks of wheat as well as weeds, leaving both to wither and die rootless on the side.

At last the weeds were gone. A fraction of the wheat remained in the field, ready to be harvested.

When the landowner arrived, he looked dismayed at the remaining wheat. He cast his eyes to the piles of wheat cut and cast with the weeds on the side, the lines of wheat that had sickened and never matured, and the remnants of the wheat that were scorched so badly, they never had the chance to grow. "What became of the crops I planted?" he inquired of his farmhands.

"The weeds had gotten into the field, Master. But don't worry," they added proudly. "We got rid of them."

The landowner wept bitterly...
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Let those who have ears, hear.