You go into a dark room and want to see what is in the room. You’ve lost a key and think it might be on a dresser or floor in the room.  It’s an important key. You open the door, and the room is pitch black.  To your left there are three flashlights: one is completely dead – batteries out, no light at all. The next is dim.  It has old cheap batteries and a faulty bulb, but you can see things with it, but not their shadows; The next is a fresh flashlight, batteries in, bulb is  great, in fact it is led, and will last a long time, it brightens any room as if the overhead light is on.  Which of these three are your choice to go into the room and search for the key?

No matter what, you are looking for a key. We all are searching for the meaning of life. It takes a lifetime to find, this key. Everyone is in their own dark room looking for a key,  What makes a difference is the light source. Ironically most people pick up the first flashlight.  It isn’t cool to have a light.  It shows weakness.  So there are millions of people searching for a key while pretending their lights work.  They even have societies for the people who choose only the broken flashlight called “The Brightest and Best.” 

There are also societies for people with the dim lights that brag about not seeing shadows,  They aren’t real anyway, those shadows.  Who needs to see in the shadows?  Seeing shadows would change the perception.  The “No Shadows” people who have grabbed the second flashlight are convinced they have it right and that they find all sorts of keys in their rooms.  They can’t show them to you, but they believe it wholeheartedly. Lots of keys.  There are examples of people who have found one key.  They swear they were led to it.

If you choose the bright flashlight, you find the key right away and use it to unlock all kinds of drawers and doors that all teach you something about light.  There is a prism in one drawer and a halogen  floor lamp behind a green door you could only get to because you could see it in the shadow.  You find lights and learn all about lights and what makes them work.  It is amazing.  But finding light is not in style. It is blamed for everything from headaches to causing the flu.  None of the Brightest and Best with broken flashlights or the “No Shadows” with dim ones like the brighter lights.  They think they show off too much.  And they act like they know about all kinds of lights.  “No Shadows” people believe there is only one true light, and it is dim and avoids shadows. 

Silly right?  But don’t we do that with inspiration and creativity?  Don’t we do it with love and with closeness to others? We say we are about community, but we inevitably need space and distance.  That bright light is showing shadows, and shadows feel wrong, so we dim our lights out of fear of this closeness, this community.

We know deep within that Light is amazing.  When it is bright it defines all around.  It bounces off of glass and ceramic, and illuminates  both the thing and causes the shadows. 

This concept of light is not a new concept to Quakerism.  It is actually how it started.  In 1647 George Fox, Founder of Quakerism, climbed up desolate Pendle Hill in Nottingham (believed to be a haunt of demons) and saw “a people in white raiment, coming to the Lord.”  He had been going and listening to many different preachers, and he was so upset because none seemed relevant to him.  He says, “I was under great temptations sometimes, and my inward sufferings were heavy; but I could find none to open my condition to but the Lord alone, unto whom I cried night and day. And I went back into Nottinghamshire, and there the Lord shewed me that the natures of those things which were hurtful without, were within in the hearts and minds of wicked men… And I cried to the Lord, saying, ‘Why should I be thus, seeing I was never addicted to commit those evils?’ And the Lord answered that it was needful I should have a sense of all conditions, how else should I speak to all conditions; and in this I saw the infinite love of God. I saw also that there was an ocean of darkness and death, but an infinite ocean of light and love, which flowed over the ocean of darkness. And in that also I saw the infinite love of God; and I had great openings.”

The vision signified what proclaiming Love’s power of light would do for people and these beliefs. And it did. By 1660, there were 50,000 followers of the Quaker belief.

Are we willing to allow our lights to shine brightly?  Are we willing to do the things, such as set up our lives with simplicity or with peace, so that there are no distractions from the Light?  Do we understand how not being simple and not being peaceful causes life to dim our lights?  Don’t listen to people who tell you to tone it down.  Love like you have never been hurt.  Love when it looks like loving will be harmful.  Step up and love anytime you are moved to.

In the early 1990’s I was the vice-president of NC Pride board and as such had to be in the lead of the Pride Parade.  We were in Asheville NC and had expected 500 people.  There were 5000 at least encircling the town as we walked.  To my right coming up a hill was a man with a negative sign.  He was yelling and he was angry.  We had had threats, of course, and we were being escorted by the police.  I stepped out of line and let the President lead the people, and I went to this man who was really getting himself worked up, and it was the beginning of the parade.  I hugged him. He said, “No one has hugged me since my wife died!”  I asked him to tell me more about this, and it turns out that he had pushed his lesbian daughter out of the family and felt a lot of guilt around her not being there for her mother at the end of his wife’s life.  I let him talk and then ran to catch up with the leader.   The man who had been so angry didn’t join us, of course.  But he was a lot less mad and quietly held his rude sign, and you can tell he was in thought.  It was thirty years ago and my strange encounter with that one angry man stands out for me because it is an aberrant example of letting the light of love overcome the darkness.  I bet each one of you has a story that is very similar.  I know many of you work hard in the community to bring about love and light.  You aren’t scared to look different by being bright lights in a dark room. Listening, being present with people, living lives that shine is what it is all about for us as Quakers.  That Light is the Presence of God or Love, and we can have an individual relationship with this Light.  We can listen to its leadership and depend on its guidance.  I don’t recommend hugging strangers for a lot of reasons, but I knew that day that I was supposed to do that, and I have never done anything before or after that incident that was a goofy as hugging an angry stranger.  But sometimes we have to be willing to be goofy for love, to take the hard stands that might make you different from others in your group or society.  There is a sea of darkness, and we can together form an ocean of love that drives it out.  It’s not too late.  In fact, this is the best time to show love. Are we willing to allow our lights to shine brightly?  Are we willing to do the things, such as set up our lives with simplicity or with peace, so that there are no distractions from the Light?  Do we understand how not being simple and not being peaceful causes life to dim our lights?