Brighten the Corner
May 12, 2016
READ: Matthew 5:14-16
There is an old song that was sung in the church years ago and the title of it was “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.” The lyrics of the song went like this: “Do not wait until some deeds of greatness you do, do not wait to shed your light afar; to the many duties ever near you now be true—brighten the corner where you are.”
What a neat phrase, ‘brighten the corner where you are.’ It reminds me of an old Chinese proverb which says, “It’s better to do a good deed from home than to go a thousand miles away to burn incense.” You know, the truth is, none of us will ever be able to change the whole world, but each of us can change our own little part of the world for the better, in the places where we live and work every day. If enough of us would seek to brighten the corners of our world every day with seeds of love, encouragement, and understanding, we might be surprised at the ripple effect that those planted seeds might have on others. I don’t know what else you are going to be doing today, but I hope one thing you do for sure is to brighten the corner where you are. Maybe that is what Jesus meant when He said that we are to be the “light of the world.”
There is an old song that was sung in the church years ago and the title of it was “Brighten the Corner Where You Are.” The lyrics of the song went like this: “Do not wait until some deeds of greatness you do, do not wait to shed your light afar; to the many duties ever near you now be true—brighten the corner where you are.”
What a neat phrase, ‘brighten the corner where you are.’ It reminds me of an old Chinese proverb which says, “It’s better to do a good deed from home than to go a thousand miles away to burn incense.” You know, the truth is, none of us will ever be able to change the whole world, but each of us can change our own little part of the world for the better, in the places where we live and work every day. If enough of us would seek to brighten the corners of our world every day with seeds of love, encouragement, and understanding, we might be surprised at the ripple effect that those planted seeds might have on others. I don’t know what else you are going to be doing today, but I hope one thing you do for sure is to brighten the corner where you are. Maybe that is what Jesus meant when He said that we are to be the “light of the world.”