Reflecting Sun Beams

"It was in a little wood in early morning. The sun was climbing behind a steep cliff in the east, and its light was flooding nearer and nearer and then making pools among the trees. Suddenly, from a dark corner of purple brown stems and tawny moss, there shown out a great golden star."

"It was just a dandelion, and half withered--but it was full face to the sun, and had caught into its heart all the glory it could hold, and was shining so radiantly that the dew that lay on it still made a perfect aureole round its head.
And it seemed to talk, standing there--to talk about the possibility of making the very best of these lives of ours."

I want to reflect God's glory, unstained by this world. I want to be like the full moon, reflecting the sun's brightness without letting the world get in the way, like a dandilion glowing with the sun's rays. I want to live 100% for the Lord, but it's easier said than done.

"It is easy to find out whether our lives are focused, and if so, where the focus lies. Where do our thoughts settle when consciousness comes back in the morning? Where do they swing back when the pressure is off during the day?

Does this test not give the clue? Then dare to have it out with God--and after all, that is the shortest way. Dare to lay bare your whole life and being before Him, and ask Him to show you whether or not all is focused on Christ and His glory. Dare to face the fact that unfocused good and useful as it may seem, it will prove to have failed of its purpose."

Often I've heard and often I need to be reminded, that sin isn't just loving evil things, it's over-valuing good things. Are the good things in my life becoming more than just good? Are they crowding out the ray of God's glory shining in my life?

"All aims, all ambitions, all desires, all pursuits --shall we dare to drop them if they cannot be gathered sharply and clearly into the focus of 'this one thing I do'?"

"It is worth while to let God see what He can do with these lives of ours, when 'to live is Christ.'...Turn full your soul's vision to Jesus, and look and look at Him, and a strange dimness will come over all that is apart from Him..."

Lord, take my life. Take it all. Consume me so fully that there's nothing left to surrender to the pullings of this world.

"For 'He is worthy' to have all there is to be had in the heart that He has died to win."

[.excerpts taken from journal entries of Lilias Trotter, in a story of her life , "A Passion for the Impossible".]