Stay Plugged In

Stay Plugged In

I found the story of the cinder and the lamp in one of our old devotionals that is very interesting as I face more challenges in life.

Henry Ward Beecher wrote, “A cold cinder and a burning lamp started out one day to see what they could find. The cinder came back and wrote in its journal that the world was dark. It did not find a place wherever it went in which there was light. Everywhere was darkness. The lamp when it came back, wrote in its journal, ‘wherever I went it was light. I did not find any darkness in my journey. The whole world was light.’ What was the difference? The lamp carried light with it and illumined everything about it. The dead cinder carried no light, and found none.”

Every day is a journey. Sometimes we wake up in a sunny day and in other times the sky is gray. Good days are when the doctor says you are on remission and bad days are when you are back to the same white walls. How can you rejoice if you are dying or you can’t hold your job? How can you smile if you lost a baby or someone you love was figured in an accident? Believe it or not, our emotions may depend on our circumstances.The pain we carry around spreads like a contagious disease.

It is easier to be a cinder rather than a lamp. It is easy to find faults of people and situations and inflict pain rather than praise, to grumble rather than to give thanks.

If you are a boss, you find relief by releasing your anger and frustrations to your employees and make them feel like you. Misery loves company.

Parents can make their children feel inadequate, always short of their expectations, pushing them to their limits to make up for their own failures they had made in the past.

If you have parents, there is always someone to be blamed why you have shortcomings. It has to be their responsibility not yours.

It takes a higher challenge to be a lamp. Can you rise above the circumstance or beyond the ordinary self? Can you see the flowers beyond the rain? Do you find diamonds in the mud? Have you given up hope to a seemingly hopeless situation?

To be a lamp is to be plugged in all the time to the ultimate source of light and love. His lamp never goes out even in the strongest of storms. His love is constant no matter who you are. Your sense and purpose is not determined by others but how God fits you in an intricate design He has made.

The moment you unplug yourselves from that connection, you die inside. A day becomes a long stretch of barren land, with no tree in sight. You are alone.

Every single day has its own purpose and rewards. Stay plugged in.