Contemplative Bible Reading

Ephesians 5:8-9 (New Living Translation)

…So live as people of light! ⁹ For this light within you produces only what is good and right and true.

God puts a light within us. God asks that we merely live what he has given us, i.e., live the light. The result is a life that is good and right and true.

Who doesn’t want that? Who doesn’t want to live GOOD and RIGHT and TRUE?

I find it a shame that we ask that question. Of course everyone wants to live good and right and true? Don’t we all? The answer is, “No.” And why not? I believe that there are many among us who have not received the blessings I have received. Social commentators call it “social capital” or the things that my earthly parents gave me as a child.

Go to bed. Brush your teeth. Go to school. Do your best. Learn your memory verse. It’s time to go to the church building. Who is your Bible class teacher? What did you learn in Sunday School today?…and many more things that my earthly parents said.

Still, “good and right and true” must mean something to all of us? Don’t they? Perhaps it is left to me to offer a cool drink of water to someone who didn’t have social-capital-granting parents. Perhaps it is left to me to offer a smile, an encouraging word, an example of good and right and true.

God, bless me as I walk out into the world this day.