I am the light of the world.
My light is about forgiveness.

This is what my ACIM review said today.

Then I look at my perpetual calendar and it reads:

Anyone can harbor a grudge,
but it takes a truly courageous
person to forgive.

It dawned on me that forgiveness is really about unconditional love. Several thoughts popped into my head regarding the word "light". The song, "This Little Light of Mine" fits with the reading that was in the movie Akeelah and the Bee. "While we allow our light to shine, we unconsciously give permission for others to do the same."

Then I thought about what I'd just heard on the Whoopie Goldberg workshop that was on Bravo a few minutes ago. People are just people. The light is about allowing people to be themselves, accepting and loving them without placing labels on them. And that led me to the following reading and song.

Angels

Think well of me and I become better.

No one is as bad as his worst moments. No one is as good as his best moments. There is always the danger that you can judge a person for the rest of his life based on one single mistake that he has made. People are indeed crucified on the grounds of an incorrect attitude and a wrongful deed. And yet a bad characteristic is still not a bad person. One bad day is not a bad life.

If you dwell on the evil, you will do evil and you will repulse and corrupt people. If you dwell on the good, you will appreciate your fellow man and say: “You are welcome, you are worthwhile!” With good people everything becomes good again. Good people are a blessing to this world. You are a good person when you give
without thinking of yourself, without wondering about how you can benefit in the process, without waiting to hear a thank you. Man-you were not made to be a victim of industry, of production, of bank accounts or shopping centres. You were made to be human! You were created for the light, for joy, to laugh and to sing, to live in life, to contribute to your fellow man’s happiness and joy. Man- you were created in the image of a God who is love. With hands to give, a heart to love and two arms just long enough to embrace others!

I believe in the goodness of people, like I believe in spring when the Almond tree blooms.

Angels are people who are transparent. They are people who let light through. Where they are, everything becomes bright and clear. They are people filled with life who bring the dead alive. Angels are people who have received something of the original joy of paradise. Believe me, angels are beings of flesh and blood who keep the world straight in a visible way. Deep within them you experience something of the mystery of unfathomable goodness, which dawns on man through everything. In them love becomes tangible, so that you just want to embrace it. In these people I feel God approaching me with all his tenderness and concern.

You are busy with something. You just can’t seem to finish it. And then along some invisible antenna somebody somewhere gets an idea, a sort of instruction to come to you and help you, be a support to you, give you a boost or to comfort you. “You are an angel”, you then say. You say it to a man, a woman, a boy or a girl. Sex and age plays no part in it. Something good, something wonderful befalls you. Life becomes carefree and all pain disappears!

But you don’t receive angels by order. They often come quite unexpectedly, are often unnoticeably present, show you the way and then disappear again! I have met many angels. Sometimes they appear from the midst of a crowd, emerge from the street, take you by the hand and solve your problem and then disappear into the street of crowd again. Nameless, without waiting for a thank you.

There are still angels in the world. But there are too few angels that is why there is still so much darkness and so much misery. God is looking for angels among the people of our day. But too many people don’t see Him any more, don’t hear Him any more. They have put away or broken their antennae somewhere. They don’t pick up any signal any more and don’t transmit anything either.
Come on, you are an angel and there are enough people in your vicinity to whom you can be an angel.

God has given each person something, which they can use to make other people happy.

I walk in the street and see no leftist people and no rightist people. I only see “people.” I wriggle into trains and buses during peak hours and I see no leftist people and no rightist people, only people, hasty people! I walk around in clinics and hospitals and see no leftist people and no rightist people, only people, sick people, people with pain! Why should we divide people? Why give them a colour, stick a label on them? Why classify them as good or bad, as yellow and red, as leftist or rightist? Why?

Accept people the way they are; there are no other people.
UNITAS, August/September 2001
UNITAS is the South African Al-Anon Magazine



Angels Among Us

As sung by Alabama

I was walking home from school on a cold winter day.
Took a shortcut through the woods, and I lost my way.
It was getting late, and I was scared and alone.
But then a kind old man took my hand and led me home.
Mama couldn't see him, but he was standing there.
And I knew in my heart, he was the answer to my prayers.

Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with a light of love.

When life held troubled times, and had me down on my knees.
There's always been someone there to come and comfort me.
A kind word from a stranger, to lend a helping hand.
A phone call from a friend, just to say I understand.
And ain't it kind of funny that at the dark end of the road.
Someone lights the way with just a single ray of hope.

Oh I believe there are angles among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.
To guide us with a light of love.

They wear so many faces, show up in the strangest places.
To guide us with their mercy, in our time of need.
Oh I believe there are angels among us.
Sent down to us from somewhere up above.
They come to you and me in our darkest hours.
To show us how to live, to teach us how to give.

To guide us with a light of love.

To guide us with a light of love.