If you believe that you were created by God and made in His image, you should also believe that you were created to shine as bright as the stars in the sky. To that end, it must also mean that you were created to let your life light shine. Your life light was not only meant to shine as a part of your inner being, it was also meant to shine on the outer most parts of you. As long as you are alive, there is a light shining in, around, and throughout you as an individual. However, you must behold it, believe it, and bring it full circle within, and throughout your life.
I am sure that many of you are laughing through your tears as I talk about your internal and external life light. You are also probably asking, ‘what damn light?’ Your life light has been dim for so long, that you need candles, lanterns, oil lamps, natural light, and any other forms of light, just for you to even begin to consider yourself as a beacon of life. And because you believe your life light has been dim for so long, hindering and hampering you from helping yourself, you feel helpless in helping anyone else.
Your life light is your smile. It’s that twinkle in you eye when you are excited; it’s your inner strength that keeps you getting up when you fall; it’s the joy in your heart; it’s that inner motivation that keeps you fighting and moving forward each and every day, even when you don’t feel like it. It’s that light that keeps giving you hope even in the midst of the darkness that keeps allowing you to see the glass as half full, instead of half empty, and keeps you believing that even though there is some darkness, there is a light at the end of the tunnel.
Do you remember the not so long ago stability in your life and the lives of your loved ones? Now I am not asking you about a time when things were perfect, because there are no perfect times. This was when there wasn’t someone wearing the title of president of the United States residing in the White House spewing hate, division, racism, classism, ageism, sexism, homophobia, lies, deceit, and violence. This was a time when hatred wasn’t the word of the day, and the outward acts of hatred were often the exception and not the rule. This was a time when you and the rest of America began to rebound from the real estate bust, the financial fallout, and one of the most devastating times for Americans in recent history.
Now, even though negative impacts of the social, economic, and emotional experiences faced by Americans have always been an aspect of the fiber of people in the United States, they were more covert than overt. Somehow, no matter how dark your days seemed, you were always able to let your light shine in the darkness, even at night. I do understand that it is often very difficult for you to see the light within you or around you with all of the mess you and your loved ones are currently having to face. Hence, it must be difficult to ask you to allow your internal and external light of life to shine as bright as the stars. But, for your very survival, the greatest weapon you have against the darkness that seems to permeate your life and the lives of your loved ones is your life light, your love light, and your light of truth.
I am a realist about the importance of finding the core of your internal life light. Not only does your life light need to shine for your success and your existence, it also needs to shine for the success and existence of family, friends, neighbors, coworkers, and others. You are probably asking, ‘how do you allow your life light to shine?’ Keep reading and I will provide information, inspiration, the transformation, as well as steps to help you to ‘Remain Steadfast & Immovable When the Lights of Life No Longer Shine.’
Your life light is you as a total package. Along with the attributes previously mentioned. Your life light includes your race, your culture, your gender, your age, your religion, your spiritual beliefs, your life choices, your geographic location, your values, your overall beliefs, the truth, and any and everything that allows you to be you! However, too often, based on your life situations and life circumstances, you many times believe that you have to forsake the characteristics previously cited. These characteristics are the base and the bases for determining your light, the brightness of your light, and the scope of your light, internally and externally. It’s when you choose to forsake or feel pressured to forsake the characteristics of who you are as a total being, along with your attempts to either be like someone else, follow someone else, or behave like someone else, that your life light, your love light, and your truth light enter the darkness zone.It is also when you allow nay sayers, outside forces, along with racial, sexual, political, social, religious, and economic forces to rid you of your smile. When you allow outside forces to dim the twinkle in your eye, when you lose your inner motivation, and when you allow your inner joy to be compromised, that you will find yourself in the midst of darkness.
Letting your life light shine and allowing it to continue to shine starts with you learning to get up again, as you learn to stand again, in the midst of your falls, falters, and failures. You must remember that you have been down this path before and you will get back up again. Your past experiences, along with the experiences of your loved ones who have faced loss, grief, broken hearts, broken homes, and all-around brokenness have dictated that you can get back up and be grateful. As a result, you will come to see that it is easier for you to recognize your blessings by expressing your gratefulness, rather than focusing on your brokenness. And each time you call up, recognize, and highlight your blessings with gratefulness, your life light will begin to shine or continue to shine, along with your love light and your truth light.
If you decide to forsake your total being by ingesting and digesting daily doses of hate-filled, racist, sexist, homophobic, classist words, you will voluntarily participate in the life dimming process. If you decide to stand for and with the hate mongers spewing negative rhetoric about people who don’t look like you, participate in and sanction voters being denied their RIGHT to vote with voter suppression tactics, and accept promises filled with lies, you will then be complicit in helping to not only cause darkness in your life, but darkness in the life of others.
I have provided you with several ways for you to not allow your life light to be dimmed; here are some other approaches that you can use. Your greatest weapon in helping you to “Remain Steadfast & Immovable When the Lights of Life No Longer Shine,” is your light of love, and your light of truth!
When you stand for what’s right, love others as you do yourself, treat people right, don’t join the haters, don’t engage in hate-filled rhetoric and hate-filled actions against others; your life light will continue to shine. When you call out those who violate your rights and the rights of others, and not participate in the mess that causes you and so many other people stress, your life light will continue to shine. You must continue seeing the glass of life as half full; continue speaking hope; continue seeing & believing that there is a light at the end of the tunnel. As long as you believe in your life light, you will feel it, and come to see it.
I challenge you to reach deep into your heart and into your soul, to allow every ray of your life light to shine. And if you allow it to shine brightly, your life light will shine throughout your life, even from the grave. Your life light, which is your love light, and your truth light, is contagious! It will remain in the lives of your children, your family, your friends, and others you touch throughout your life. Even in the midst of seeming darkness, your light of love and truth will never go dark!!!
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