Sure it is, but each of our candles (When lit) contributes to the whole....
Not necessarily. You're assuming that the intention is to combine in this way-- to "be one" in the sense of one big group. However, there is a difference between "being one" physically and "being one" spiritually.
No doubt, your assumption is based on what you have learned in church. And why wouldn't that be the message? Would you expect a church not to teach this parable to mean that we must unite together into one big group to make one big light? That is their bias, because unity on that scale is on a denominational church's agenda.
Is unity on this scale really the intention?
Take a step back for a moment, GK, rather than to simply buck against the idea. It's not as if I haven't tried to see things your way; I used to believe whole-heartedly the things that you believe.
The Kingdom of Heaven is like a treasure that a man finds, and when he has found it, he puts it back where he found it and goes off and sells all that he has in order to possess it. What is your treasure, GK? Have you found it yet? The thing that will make you foresake all other things, and give up all you have for it?
I have found it. Twice. They are my children.
My heart aches at the thought of my children. They are beyond importance to me; they are everything to me. They are the "first love" that Jesus speaks of in the Revelation letter to Ephesus. Before my son was born, I never felt a love like I feel now for anyone else-- God included. It's the love that God feels for me, I'm sure, and it's incredible.
And it is this love that now drives me through life. Every decision I make is based around them. They dominate my thoughts. They're what make me truly happy, and truly grateful to have been given life by God.
Though I feel empathy for those who are suffering in the world (as I too have suffered and my wife has suffered), joining some movement to fix the world pales in importance compared to my concern for my children. It is not a selfish concern; rather, it's a selfless concern-- a true love for somebody who has done nothing to earn it. My goal is simple: to be the best husband and father I can possibly be, and this is the light that shines from my home-- a light that others might see, and which might influence them.
I feel that it's no coincidence that in the year after my wife and I got married in a whirlwind romance, three couples within our circle of friends who had been together for years decided to get married. It's also not a coincidence that in the year after we had our first child, both my sister and my cousin decided to have children. They saw how wonderful it was for Kim and I to have that kind of blessing in our life, and they wanted the same.
But are people truly moved in the same way for these "grander ambitions" that we've been talking about? Are people truly motivated to get together and build the Kingdom of Heaven on Earth? Or is it an unrealistic hope? Why else would the Bible prophesy that Jesus would need to return in order to establish the Kingdom? If there was any real chance that people would do it themselves, why wouldn't that be prophesied?
"The kingdom of Heaven is within you," says the Lord.
"When two or three are gathered in my name, I am there," says the Lord.
"Not by might, nor by strength, but by my spirit," says the Lord.
The Kingdom of Heaven is not something that can be built. It's time to stop kidding ourselves.
