Episode 772
Living Wide Eyed: Embracing Light and Wonder in Your Daily Life | 772
Welcome, good people, to another soul-nourishing episode of "To Be Encouraged: Daily Bible Refresh." I'm your host, Rev. Dr. Brad Miller, and today, we're diving into a profound passage from the Gospel of Luke, Chapter 11, verses 33–36, as interpreted by The Message translation. This episode promises to be a beacon of light in your day, filled with thought-provoking points to ponder, practical action steps, and a heartfelt prayer.
In this episode, we delve into Jesus's metaphor of light and lamps, as presented in the gospel. The passage emphasizes the importance of living with radical openness, or as Jesus puts it, "living wide-eyed." Being a light in the world and not hiding this light is essential to fully understanding and embodying Jesus's teachings.
Here are your key takeaways from today's episode:
- Politics of Visibility: Jesus's metaphor of not hiding one’s light in a drawer underlines the importance of visibility. It speaks to the necessity of making seen what systems of power often try to keep hidden. In our modern context, this means shining a light on injustices, amplifying marginalized voices, and confronting environmental destruction. It's a call to live wide-eyed and refuse to look away from uncomfortable truths.
- Beyond Scarcity Mindset: The contrast between living in "wide-eyed wonder and belief" versus "squinty-eyed greed and distrust" challenges us to move beyond a scarcity mindset. In our culture, where competition often overshadows cooperation, Jesus’s teachings are a reminder that there is enough for everyone. Embracing wonder and generosity becomes an act of resistance against the capitalist messages of scarcity and competition.
- Embodied Enlightenment: This scripture passage beautifully ties spiritual enlightenment with bodily experience, reminding us that spirituality is holistic. It's not just mental or emotional but also physical and social. It emphasizes the need to engage with community, validate embodied wisdom, and challenge the mind-body dualism that often characterizes theological thought.
As a practical action step, I encourage you to engage in a "wonder walk." Take a short, intentional walk, observing both beauty and signs of injustice in your surroundings. Such a practice can help shift your focus to illuminate areas needing attention in your community, reminding you to keep your lamp burning brightly for others to see.
Our prayer today centers around staying open-hearted and wide-eyed, seeking God's illuminating presence to dispel old fears and prejudices. May we become agents of change, filled with divine light, making a tangible impact in a shadowy world.
Thank you for joining us on today’s Daily Bible Refresh. If you found value in today’s message, share it with someone else who could use a bit of illumination. Join us again tomorrow and remember, God’s merciful love is created new every morning.
Visit voiceofgoddaily.com for more resources, including our ABC 123 Bible Study Guide. Stay blessed and keep your light shining!
===========
The "Daily Bible Refresh" is presented each day by Rev. Dr. Brad Miller who has a goal of speaking a bit of the bible into two million ears (one million people) in three years (2025-2028).
He is the author of "The A, B, C-1,2,3 Bible Study Guide" Free to you by clicking HERE.
Brad served as a local church pastor for forty years and has a background in radio and podcasting. Moreover, he is a life-long student of The Bible.
He believes in the words of Jesus that “scripture is fulfilled in your hearing” (Luke 4:21)
The "Daily Bible Refresh" is available seven days a week by 6:00 am ET. The episodes are no longer than ten minutes long and are...
- Understandable: A reading from the New Testament (usually the Gospel) selected from the Revised Common Lectionary using "The Message" translation.
- Relatable: You will have a couple of "points to ponder" from the text which will relate to your life
- Applicable: Every episode includes a way you can take action based on the reading
- A recommended resource to help you go deeper in biblical study and spiritual direction.
- A prayer for your day.
A companion resource to the Voice of God Daily Podcast is the “ABC Bible Study Guide” available by clicking HERE.
The "Daily Bible Refresh" is available every day at VoiceofGodDaily.com on Apple Podcasts, Spotify and all major podcast directories.
You can help Dr. Brad attain his goal of getting a bit of the bible into two million ears by subscribing to "Daily Bible Refresh" on Apple Podcasts, leaving a five-star rating, and writing a review. More importantly please share with your network of family and friends about the "Daily Bible Refresh".
Please make listening to the "Daily Bible Refresh" a part of your daily life.
Remember… “All scripture is God-breathed and useful”(2 Timothy 3:16)
Transcript
Hello, good people, and welcome to, daily
Speaker:bible refresh with doctor Brad Miller. That's me,
Speaker:and we come to you courtesy of voice of god
Speaker:daily dot com. Where we offer you a daily
Speaker:reading of the holy scriptures from
Speaker:the revised comma lectionary. We're in year c
Speaker:in the epiphany season. We like to make our Trimble reading
Speaker:every day understandable, relatable, and applicable.
Speaker:Understandable because we read from the new testament lesson only from
Speaker:the message interpretation or translation of the
Speaker:Trimble. Relatable and in that, we offer you a couple of points to
Speaker:ponder and applicable, and we give you an action step. We have a
Speaker:prayer, and then we do all this in less than 10 minutes.
Speaker:Today's reading is from the gospel of Luke chapter 11 verses
Speaker:33 through 36.
Speaker:Reading from the message. No one lights a lamp then
Speaker:hides it in a drawer. It's put on a lamp stand
Speaker:so those entering the room have light to see where where they're
Speaker:going. Your eye is a lamp lighting up your whole
Speaker:body. If you live wide eyed in wonder and
Speaker:belief, your body fills up with light. If you live
Speaker:squinty eyed in greed and distrust, your body is
Speaker:a musty seller. Keep your eyes open,
Speaker:your lamp burning, so you don't get musty and
Speaker:murky. Keep your life as well lighted
Speaker:as your best lighted room.
Speaker:Wow. That's an illuminating
Speaker:scripture, if you'll pardon the pun. It's really about
Speaker:living wide eyed. It's the practice
Speaker:of radical openness. And Jesus
Speaker:uses this metaphor of light to challenge
Speaker:our way of seeing and being in the
Speaker:world. Here's a couple of points to ponder about this
Speaker:passage of scripture. There is the politics of
Speaker:visibility. Jesus's words about not hiding
Speaker:light speaks to importance of making visible
Speaker:what systems of power often try to
Speaker:some people often try to keep hidden.
Speaker:In the context of what we talk about in our day and age, this
Speaker:causes us to illuminate injustice,
Speaker:amplify marginalized voices, and shine
Speaker:a light on environmental destruction.
Speaker:That is that living wide eyed means refusing to look away
Speaker:from uncomfortable truth. Here's another point to
Speaker:ponder. We're talking about going beyond a scarcity mindset.
Speaker:The contrast between wide eyed wonder and squinty eyed greed
Speaker:challenges our culturals our culture scarcity
Speaker:mentality. Christianity is really about recognizing there is
Speaker:enough for everyone when resources are justly
Speaker:distributed. Wonder and generosity are acts of
Speaker:resistance against capitalism's messages of scarcity and
Speaker:competition. One more point to think about.
Speaker:This has to do with embodied enlightenment. This
Speaker:passage connects spiritual enlightenment with
Speaker:a bodily experience. It says your
Speaker:body fills up with light. This is a holistic
Speaker:view which affirms that spirituality isn't just a mental
Speaker:or emotional thing, but it is physical and it is social.
Speaker:It is engaged with community and it
Speaker:validates embodied wisdom and challenges
Speaker:mind body dualism that is often characterized
Speaker:theological thinking. Here's your action step for
Speaker:for today. Practice wonder walking.
Speaker:And just take a short walk, 5, 10, 15 minutes,
Speaker:and walk slowly through your neighborhood, or through the mall, or
Speaker:some someplace in your town, and intentionally
Speaker:look to notice what goes unnoticed.
Speaker:Notice signs of beauty and wonder and color, and also
Speaker:signs of darkness or injustice.
Speaker:You might even want to take your cell phone with you and take a
Speaker:few photos of it or write something about it or maybe do
Speaker:some artistic expression about it or share your observations
Speaker:online or in some other way.
Speaker:Focusing needs where there is focusing on
Speaker:illuminating or providing light in your community.
Speaker:We're gonna pray in just a second, but I wanna let you know we do
Speaker:have a resource for you that can help you go deeper in the scriptures if
Speaker:you choose to. It's called the C 123
Speaker:Trimble study guide. We provide it at our website
Speaker:voiceofgoddaily.com. It's a simple way
Speaker:that you can go a little deeper into the scriptures. ABC
Speaker:123 Trimble study guide. Let's pray.
Speaker:Oh, God, you are our source of light and life.
Speaker:Help us to keep our eyes and hearts wide open even when it would be
Speaker:easier to look away. Free us from the grip of scarcity
Speaker:thinking that make us clutch light tight tightly and live
Speaker:narrowly. Illuminate the places within us that have grown
Speaker:musty with old fears and inherited prejudices.
Speaker:Guide us in shining light in what needs to be seen
Speaker:while maintaining wonder at life's beauty. May our bodies, minds, and spirits
Speaker:be filled with your transforming light and make us agents of
Speaker:illumination and change in a shadowy world.
Speaker:Amen. Well, my name is doctor Brad Miller. It's been good
Speaker:to be with you here on the daily Trimble refresh. So
Speaker:join my day. I hope that it isn't yours. If it is, would
Speaker:you share it with somebody else in your life? Invite them to join you on
Speaker:the daily bible refresh. You can find us at
Speaker:voice of god daily dot com.
Speaker:Until tomorrow morning then, friends, remember that god's love doesn't
Speaker:run out. His merciful love hasn't dried up.
Speaker:It's created new every morning.
