Do You Mind the Light? Should We?

I have a daughter who is a student at Swarthmore College which the Quakers founded. Quakers founded many excellent US schools by the way.  Finally, the Quakers gave up these colleges, but culturally they are all still influenced by this origin. They pay attention to mind the light.

For example, they regularly send us parents an email/letter. They call it:  Minding the Light. Now Swarthmore is not Christian and uses this to encourage positive thinking and good thoughts. However, where do they get this phrase?

Have you heard of George Fox?

It was he who developed the term minding the light.(George Fox claimed that all people had an inner light from God)

He was a guy who loved God with all his heart 400 years ago. George Fox found that organized religion was not doing it for him, but loved God with his whole heart. He discovered that Jesus was in and around him and could satisfy his longings directly.

Traditional Quakers do not use a church plan for Church time. They come and gather before the Lord in a circular arrangement. Everyone comes to mind the light within them and among them. In truth they try to do it more in life in general. They have no pastor or music director but may have preaching and music at each meeting without planning.

Can We Mind the Light?

So, when I get the email to Mind the Light, I am naturally called to prayer and waiting. I have not gone nearly as far as them in minding the light. I am not Quaker. However, the words challenge me.

Can we see our Savior in all our lives ready to lead us?

We preach that the Holy Spirit lives within each of us. Would that not give each of us an inner light to tap into? Would not Christians high and low also have that light? Let’s mind the light in each of us. I think most of us would even admit that God has given words to non Christians which have moved us toward God.

Furthermore, the Holy Spirit must be more than a passive mark within us. Do we believe and seek to hear?

We need to immerse ourselves in God and his Word so as not to let our ‘minding the light’ lead us to the wrong voices. Some Quaker groups have left God by unwittingly letting voices outside the Holy Spirit lead and guide. Minding the light is not Pentecostal.

Quaker groups that held tight to the Bible have usually maintained their strength. I think we all might gain from little more minding the light than we are used to.