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2019 REMAINS...
to be a year for rekindling and fulfilling the ministry. To ensure such a journey, the Lord “re-calls” Couples for Christ to “Live as children of light.” “For you were once darkness, but now you are light in the Lord. Live as children of light,” (Ephesians 5:8-9) Simply put, if we want to rekindle and fulfill our ministry, then we need to live as children of light.
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To “live as children of light” is a call that is special to CFC. Note the use of the plural form “children”, instead of the singular “child”. The Lord knows that the journey to light cannot be done alone. There must be “another”. There must be community. There must always be God. Precisely, the very gift to Couples for Christ!
Couples for Christ never journey alone. There is always the spouse. There is always the family. There is always the service team. There is always the community. There is always the Church. There is always history. In each, there is light. In all, Light is there.
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“Light”. What a beautiful word. And powerful too. In one household meeting, we sang the worship songs “Behold” and “You alone are Holy”. I took a keen and renewed interest in the use of the words “splendor” and “glory”.
“Splendor” and “glory”, by definition, have actually something to do with “light”. Yes, splendor means “great and impressive beauty”, but it also means “great brightness”, “magnificent light”. “Glory” means “praise, honor and distinction”, but it also means “something marked by resplendence.”
The Thesaurus even goes on to assert that “glory” and “splendor” are synonymous to each other.
In this sense, we can now see the power in “light” and the power in the call to “Live as children of light”. The call to light is actually a call to victory! And, to “live as children of light” actually means to “Live as children of Glory” or “Live as Children of Splendor”!
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Now, look at our song “You alone are holy”.
You alone are holy
You alone are Lord
You alone are worthy Lamb of God
We behold your splendor
Seated on the throne
Robed and crowned with glory evermore,
Mighty Lord!
Mighty Lord!
In the CFC year of “Behold and Ponder” (CFC theme for 2014), we dared to define “behold” as “to hold in view”, “to gaze, study, and analyze, and in the process, be astonished”. In the words of the contemplatives and mystics, to behold is “to see reality as it is” and “to experience an event fully”.
Now, go back to the line “We behold Your Splendor”. How can we possibly behold splendor? How can we hold in view or gaze at such great brightness, such magnificent light, such glory, such resplendence, such refulgence? (Refulgence by the way also means “to shine brightly.”) It will be like us looking directly at the midday sun with our naked eyes! Definitely, it will be beyond our capacity to do so.
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This is why we start with little. We start anew at “rekindling”. We re-acknowledge that our light is one that needs constant renewal, one with permanent need of nurturing and a vigilant blowing to remove the ashes covering the firewood or smoldering the wick.
We even recognize that we are not the light. We can only look at the light, and be recipient of its illumination and shine. We can only journey to become light in the Lord.
And so, we re-start at dawn. It is grace enough to be illumined by the light of dawn. We expect to be awed by daybreak and we anticipate with much excitement, even trembling, the moment when everything comes to light.
But for now, we content ourselves for matters to “dawn on us”.
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To dawn on us, like the foregoing insights – if one may call them as such – have dawned on me. By grace, they have just dawned on us. As we now pray for more and share more. Let us rekindle the journey to a Light-filled life. May God bless us all!