I have a little oil lamp that a friend gave me, and it’s a constant reminder to me that a life of faith involves both contemplation and action.
The oil lamp has a wick, and the wick has two ends. If there is to be light, then one end of the wick has to remain submerged in the oil, and the other end has to extend into the world. Only then is it possible for a flame to bring both light and warmth.
A person of faith is one who is called to bring a bit more light and warmth into the world. To do this, we must remain rooted in a life of prayer and reflection, finding God in the ordinary things around us and immersing ourselves from time to time in the deep silence of our hearts, where God is indwelling. But it is also necessary to be “out there,” burning with love and compassion, justice and peace, in a world that longs for light in its darkness and new ways forward through the maze of contemporary life. If either of these is lacking, then our lives will not be channels of God’s light and warmth.
Margaret Silf, Simple Faith: Moving Beyond Religion As You Know It to Grow in Your Relationship with God, pp. 43-44.
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