Let the Lower Lights be Burning

It has been some time since I have published to this blog, but life frequently takes us for adventures that prohibit us from maintaining our normal habits, and that has been so in my life for the last several months. Now, nearing the end of the third quarter of 2007, it is beginning to dawn on me that this is going to increasingly be the rule, not the exception, in my life, and I must simply invoke in myself the discipline to write anyway.

I have been newly gripped in the last several months by the distinctive and sincere need in American society to pursue two virtues championed by the late bestselling author M. Scott Peck: Civility and Community. I have simultaneously been under the conviction that the kind of personal growth we must achieve in order to achieve these goals is almost overwhelming, but I believe that without it occurring on a grand scale, we will, as a nation, and as the human race, suffer complete annihilation, if not physical, then spiritual.

For a period of time this year, I fell back into the bad habit of thinking that political change and political reform are the necessary preconditions for a renaissance of society--but I keep reminding myself that political leadership has almost always been lacking throughout history, politics has always been corrupt, and that the genuine revolutions and reforms of culture have taken place, not in the halls of Congress, but in the halls of our elementary schools, in the pews of our churches, in the coffee shops and salons where people talk about the issues of the day, and most fundamentally, in the chambers of the individual heart.

There are two utterly saintly human beings with whom I have had the tremendous pleasure to get to know and interact with over the last two months who have reminded me that the human condition can be remedied through the faithful and selfless ministry of loving people, and my conviction is stronger now than ever that it is to this end we should strive. There may be a few times in our lives when we are able to make a visible, monumental impact on the world, but those times are few. Most days of our lives, we wake up, we do whatever it is that we do, we go to bed, and then rinse and repeat the next day, ignoring the human suffering in front of us on every corner, in every cubicle, and in every heart.

Although I am far from sympathetic to his theology, I am completely moved by a story D.L. Moody once told, and which inspired the hymnist Philip Bliss to pen a hymn with the same theme. I will quote both of them below:

On a dark, stormy, night, when the waves rolled like mount­ains, and not a star was to be seen, a boat, rock­ing and plung­ing, neared the Cleve­land har­bor. “Are you sure this is Cleve­land?” asked the cap­tain, see­ing only one light from the light-house.
“Quite sure, sir,” re­plied the pi­lot.
“Where are the low­er lights?”
“Gone out, sir.”
“Can you make the har­bor?”
“We must, or per­ish, sir!”
And with a strong hand and a brave heart, the old pi­lot turned the wheel. But alas, in the dark­ness he missed the channel, and with a crash upon the rocks the boat was shiv­ered, and ma­ny a life lost in a wat­ery grave. Breth­ren, the Mas­ter will take care of the great light-house: let us keep the low­er lights burn­ing!

-D.L. Moody

"Brightly beams our Father’s mercy from His lighthouse evermore,
But to us He gives the keeping of the lights along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
Some poor fainting, struggling sailor, you may rescue, you may save.

Dark the night of sin has settled, loud the angry billows roar;
Eager eyes are watching, longing, for the lights, along the shore.
Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
Eager eyes are watching, longing, for the lights, along the shore.

Trim your feeble lamp, my brother, some poor sailor tempest tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor, in the darkness may be lost.
Let the lower lights be burning! Send a gleam across the wave!
Trying now to make the harbor, some poor sailor may be lost."
-Philip Bliss

So many people feel the need to try climbing the flights and flights of stairs to take a small match to keep the great lighthouse aflame, but they will not stay on the shores, where the lower lights are saving people in the everyday. Without going into a lengthy discussion of the theological doctrine of salvation, I must say that I have come to believe that the greatest instrument of God's grace is the love of individual people toward their fellow man, unselfishly caring, unselfishly giving, and unselfishly understanding. We are capable of performing acts of salvation with every word we speak, with every heart we touch, and with every soul we minister to.

In a talk I once gave, I made the statement that Christ came to rule the world, not with a sword, but with a stethoscope, and I don't think it was until recently that I knew the full truth of that statement. The world around us is broken and sick. Every single one of us is broken and sick in our own way, and it is through our own wounds, and outpouring of agape love that we are able to minister to the wounds and sicknesses of those around us. This is what is meant by keeping the lower lights burning.

Whether we are Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Hindu, Agnostic, or whatever, we must labor together, side by side, ministering in love to our fellow man. To borrow Henri Nouwen's term, we must all be "wounded healers," and it is through our wounded healing that we will find the strength to save the earth from being engulfed in sickness, hatred, and violence.

Blessed are the poor in spirit,
for theirs is the kingdom of heaven.
Blessed are those who mourn,
for they will be comforted.
Blessed are the meek,
for they will inherit the earth.
Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,
for they will be filled.
Blessed are the merciful,
for they will be shown mercy.
Blessed are the pure in heart,
for they will see God.
Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.