Stumbling Toward the Light

Scripture
When the apostles were with Jesus, they kept asking him, “Lord, are you going to free Israel now and restore our kingdom?”  “The Father sets those dates,” he replied, “and they are not for you to know. But when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, you will receive power and will tell people about me everywhere” (Acts1:6-8 NLT)

Stumbling Toward the Light
This last week as we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection, I’ve been thinking about how confusing and mind-blowing this event was for Jesus’ first learning group. It took them weeks to get their heads around this death defeating action.

Some of them went back to work; they got together for meals to try to understand each successive appearance Jesus made to some of their group. They may have thought, “Does this mean that we are soon going to be in power around here?”

The light gradually dawned on them that they were called to a subversive movement that worked under the radar and beneath the system. Power was expressed in service, love and relationship. We struggle today to see and know this resurrected Jesus in the darkness of life. The prayer today is one of Mother Teresa’s. She saw the true light in the darkest of places - including her own soul. 

A Prayer for Today
Dearest Lord, may I see you today andevery day in the person of your sick, and, whilst nursing them, minister unto you. Though you hide yourself behind the unattractive disguise of the irritable, the exacting, the unreasonable, may I still recognize you, and say: 'Jesus my patient, how sweet it is to serve you.' Lord give me this seeing faith, then my work will never be monotonous. I will ever find joy in humoring the fancies and gratifying the wishes of all poor sufferers.  (Mother Teresa: 1910-1998)