Light Source

[original title: "Where Do We Get Our Brilliance?"]

What do we Christians do to counter this violence-filled world? We are to be more visible witnesses to Jesus' reign. In order to do this, we must be willing to be human in an environment of vulnerability; that is, to understand that when we are in relationships with others our humanity is bound up in the other's humanity.

Desmond Tutu illustrates this by describing a light bulb that shone brightly and proudly. “[It] began to strut about arrogantly, quite unmindful of how . . . it could shine so brilliantly, thinking that it was all due to its own merit and skill.”

One day the light bulb is taken out of the socket and placed on a table. “Try as hard as it could, the light bulb could bring forth no light and brilliance. . . . It had never known that its light came from the power station and that it had been connected to the dynamo by little wires and flexes that lay hidden and unseen and totally unsung.”

Source: Michael Battle, The Other Kingdom (quoted in an eSermons email dated 11-19-2007).