Looking inside ourselves

‘Your eyes are like a lamp for the body. When your eyes are sound, your whole body is full of light; but when your eyes are no good, your whole body will be in darkness. Make certain, then, that the light in you is not darkness. If your whole body is full of light, with no part of it in darkness, it will be bright all over, as when a lamp shines on you with its brightness.’ (verses 34-36)

Read Luke 11:24-36

Looking and seeing are two different things. My eyes are still in reasonable condition, yet yesterday I asked a young lady where her mother was—and the mother was standing right next to her! I looked, but I didn’t see.

Jesus suggests here that we need to look inside ourselves and see what is there. So what do you see when you look inside yourself? Perhaps you would prefer not to look. And perhaps you have enough insight to know that there are plenty of murky comers lurking there. Modem psychology has helped us to become more aware of the darkness within us all.

So what do we do about this inner darkness? Do we need to have regular sessions of psychoanalysis to get rid of it, as seems to be the trend in USA and Europe? No, all we need is to have Jesus, the light of the world, shine on us. Then, as Jesus promises, our lives will be bright all over—and inside too!

Lord Jesus, shine the light of your love into every corner of my life, so that I might live in and by its illumination. Amen.

by John Vitale, in ‘Guidance for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 2002)

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