Turning Towards the Light: Embracing Spiritual Growth

One of the remarkable things about a sunflower is its love for the light is its love for the sun. You might think that plants can't move; I usually think of them that way, but you would be wrong. Sunflower in its early days is what's called the heliotrol peliosis from the Greek word for sun. [00:01:12]

In him was life, and that life was the light of all humanity. The light was coming into the world, the light that gives life. The light has come into the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out. So now the invitation for you and me today is to be a little heliotrope. [00:03:04]

In any moment, my mind can get pulled into the darkness of temptation or the darkness of inadequacy or the darkness of resentment, and then I remember my friend Jesus is here, and I was made to be turned towards him. One of the words in the Bible for convert is to turn. [00:03:30]

When true simplicity is gained, to bend and to bow, to serve and to worship, we shan't be ashamed. To turn, turn, will be our delight, till by turning, turning, we come out right. And we need that because, as Jesus also said in the gospel of John, part of the difficulty is that although this light has come into the world, we prefer darkness. [00:04:40]

He did that for many, many, many years until he met Jesus, and he realized that he had been treating his wife out of a heart of darkness, and he wanted to turn to the light. And so he gave my friend Steve that silver dollar and told him the story and said, "I'm not carrying any more the need to show that I am right." [00:06:04]

I was taking a shower the other day, and it was quite a while before I got into it. Nancy just yelled, "Drought!" because there's a drought going on. It's hard for things like sunflowers to grow, and water was wasting. But internally, my response was not, "Yes, I care about God's creation." [00:06:36]

Here's what Paul Tournier writes about how a person that he has been talking to, working with for weeks, even months on end in utter darkness, when suddenly a light shines, not from us, to illumine that life. The living God has been breaking in upon that person, rousing into activity the guiding force that will suddenly manifest itself. [00:07:46]

He says our life is a score composed by God. The person, you or I, is the conductor who is assuring its performance by directing the orchestra, our body, our mind, what God has given to us. But the composer is not absent. He is there during the performance. He leans over to the conductor and encourages him. [00:08:22]

Instead of yelling, he rushes out there and puts those two great big arms around the little arms of that tiny little child, and he begins to improvise this magnificent composition right on the spot to chopsticks. And while he's doing that, he leans down and whispers into the ear of that little child, "Just keep going, just keep playing, just don't stop, just don't quit. You and I will do this together." [00:09:36]

In our messed up, inadequate, weak, often darkness-filled little lives, he bends down over us in his grace, and he whispers into our ears, "You keep going today. You don't stop today. You keep on playing because I'm at work with you. I'm the one that's making the music." [00:10:18]

All through the day, you turn to the light when darkness comes, when you're afraid, when you might feel depressed about something, when you're aware that you're inadequate, when you are tempted to do the wrong thing, when you mistreat somebody, when somebody mistreats you, we turn, turn, turn to the light. [00:10:44]

We are heliotropic beings, and the light has come into the darkness, and the darkness cannot put it out. We turn, run this great adventure together. [00:11:05]