Thursday, April 26, 2012

This little light of mine.

{Photo by orange gearle via flickr.com}
Are you ever amazed when you come across a song or a quote or a photograph or a sunset or sunise that seems to just "speak to you" exactly in the way your heart, mind and/or spirit seem to be needing to "hear it"?! I love when that happens. Today, in one of my devotionals {Streams in the Desert devotionals compiled by Mrs. Chas E. Cowman, 1950} this spoke straight to my heart and I just feel like maybe by sharing it here it could speak to someone else too.
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Shining is always costly. Light comes only at the cost of that which produces it. An unlit candle does no shining. Burning must come before shining. We cannot be of great use to others without cost to ourselves. Burning suggests suffering. We shrink from pain.
We are apt to feel that we are doing the greatest good in the world when we are strong, and able for active duty, and when the heart and hands are full of kindly service.
When we are called aside and can only suffer; when we are sick; when we are consumed with pain; when all our activities have been dropped, we feel that we are no longer of use, that we are not doing anything.
But if we are patient and submissive, it is almost certain that we are a greater blessing to the world in our time of suffering and pain than we were in the days when we thought we were doing the most of our work. We are burning now, and shining because we are burning.

6 comments:

Rosie said...

I love when something jumps out at us! Thank you for sharing this!

I am glad that you are still writing, even through the rough times. I have struggled in the last year or so writing because of some family struggles. They are ones that can't be shared on a blog. Therefore, I haven't written nearly enough.

Thank you for sticking it out through the tough times.

As the saying lately goes--enjoy the journey!

ps. I am actually getting sick of that saying--not the philosophy of it-just the over use in our world of it--seems to make light of it!

Jennifer said...

Love this devotional book! And love that you share your heart. :-)

Anonymous said...

Thanks for sharing this with us. It speaks profoundly to me. Also, thanks for sharing your journey with us.

Anonymous said...

Jody, I have hopped and gone through so many blogs, but I think this one is filled with such a beautiful gift - honesty, sharing, life, some sad some happy. I will definitely be back to keep reading. Thank you!

jenny said...

Beautiful, Jody! Thanks for sharing.

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