A venerable, old sage once asked his disciples, “How can we know when the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming?”
“When we can see a tree in the distance and know that it is an elm and not a juniper,” ventured one student.
“When we can see an animal and know that it is a fox and not a wolf,” chimed in another.
“No,” said the old man, “those things will not help us.”
Puzzled the students demanded, “How then can we know?”
The master teacher drew himself up to his full stature and replied quietly, “We know the darkness is leaving and the dawn is coming when we can see another person and know that this is our brother or our sister; otherwise, no matter what time it is, it is still dark.”
- Story found in Prayer Finding the Heart's True Home by Richard J. Foster
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i was intrigued with this until the "another person" point
ReplyDeletemaybe i need more context
or maybe im not as confident in others
what r ur thoughts on this david?
Well the context is in the book I quoted from. It's a good book and I recommend it. But I don't exactly remember the context and I've returned the book to the library.
ReplyDeleteI think that there will be spiritual darkness in this world until we can look on everyone we meet as a brother or a sister. God's church is, after all, not only the body of Christ but the family of God.
^ ok i see what u mean
ReplyDeletebut for some reason, it just doesn't seem possible
there is so much hatred in the world and in our hearts