This year has been unsettling. So many dark threads, events, circumstances have become woven into its fabric.

It has been a season where trouble and tricksters have been afoot. Where spin artists and masters of illusion have used fabrications to create confusion and chaos and division. Where violence has erupted. And darkness has percolated through the seams of our culture, society, and faith.

But we are called to be different. 

We are called to a higher moral ground and standard, than what have been witnessing and experiencing.

We are called to rise. Courageously live out our faith and the Truth.

To be the hands and feet and heart of Christ. To spread love into a world, that so desperately needs generous, abundant love and grace and mercy.

Yet where we are also called to confront others, speaking truth in love and grace. To challenge behaviour that is  unethical, disrespectful, unkind, demeaning or exclusive. For if we remain silent, we give our consent to the status quo, and the standards being set by those with little or no moral compass.

We are called to stretch our tables and throw open our doors. Including travellers, the hungry, the lonely, and the outcast and marginalized.

We are called to show grace, and forgiveness. Even when hearts have been deeply wounded.

We are to show mercy, while seeking justice.

We are called to serve others. Humbly, generously, sacrificially.

We are called to be peacemakers.

To become so rooted in the truth of the Word, that we reflect the truth of the Word.

Becoming transformed, capable of fulfilling Jesus’ call for us to be the “light of the world.” (Matthew 5:14)

Where, individually and collectively, we begin to illuminate the darkness with love, faithfulness, goodness, patience, self-control, gentleness, kindness, joy and peace.

We are called to be different. So we can make a difference.

And where, because we exude such a depth of love and light, others are drawn to the warmth.

Rising. Shining light, and love, into world around us. So that the darkness and anything that is not of the light, will be disempowered, and overcome.

@fiveminutefriday weekly prompt: DIFFERENT

Photo credits: Marko Blazevic, Andres F. Uran, Gaelle Marcel, from Unsplash