Go Ahead and Light the World

As it has the past several years, our Church has a worldwide campaign for the month of December called #LightTheWorld. Each year it’s a little different. This year has the theme One by One. The idea is to do small acts of service every day. And if enough of us do that, we light the world—we make it a much brighter place. Here’s this year’s introductory video:

An innovation this year is a daily prompt that comes to your phone (sign up here), suggesting a small act you can do that day. If the day’s idea doesn’t work for you, you can ask for an alternative. It’s suggested that you use the hashtag #LightTheWorld on social media, so we can all see how it spreads. I’ve had friends doing that. But, I don’t really understand hashtags, and also I’m hesitant to tell what I’m doing. Hard to know whether that’s because I feel like my contributions are so small, or are things I would be doing anyway, or if it’s because of modesty about the quiet service I’m doing. Suffice it to say I’m trying to do some little good thing, intentionally, every day during this lead up to Christmas.

Yesterday’s prompt was “Share a scripture with a loved one.” I like this one:

Keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life.—Jude 1:21

The day before was “Perform an act of service for a family member.” That day I did a thorough cleaning of the bathroom floor, with Mr. Spherical Model. We used a pressure washer along with a carpet shampooer to suction up the water. It was hard and messy. And more his service to me than the other way around. But then I cooked dinner for him, which I don’t always do on a Saturday.

One day was to donate to a reputable global charity. We had talked about what charities we would give to this year, which was more than usual despite not having more funds. But I added to that a small donation (the amount of a music lesson I earned) to Hillsdale College, from whom I have benefited much but to whom I had never contributed. (You can donate here.) 

One day was “Offer a prayer of gratitude for Jesus Christ and His mercy.” That was both easy and something that is part of daily life. But I did it intentionally that day.

The #LightTheWorld 2019 Calendar
found here

We should be doing these things all year. But, even so, refocusing on what we should be doing helps us do more of it. So I’m glad that’s one of the benefits of the Christmas season.

Our reading this past week, for church, was the three epistles of John plus the epistle of Jude. It seemed appropriate for this time of year that the theme of these chapters is light and love.

In 1 John 1:7 we’re told we should start with fellowship to God, and that leads us to fellowship with our neighbors. This is how we share our light together.

In 1 John 2:9–11 we learn that anyone who claims to be in the light but hates a brother or sister is still in the darkness. But anyone who loves their brother and sister lives in the light.

Being holy, or filled with light, or any other way to define being followers of Christ, is about more than avoiding doing wrong, or sinning; it’s about showing love toward one another.

Is the world better when we do these things? Look at the list in 1 Corinthians 13. We’re expected to show Christlike love:

·         By being long-suffering.

·         By being kind.

·         By ridding ourselves of envy.

·         By not making ourselves out to be better than we are or better than others.

·         When our behavior is not unseemly—that is, not indecent or unbecoming.

·         By not being selfish or self-centered.

·         By not being easily provoked.

·         By thinking no evil.

·         When we don’t take joy in evil-doing.

·         When we do take joy in truth.

·         When we’re open to believing,

·         And to hoping,

·         And when we endure in the light no matter what.

Is the world better off when people try to emulate these attributes than when they do not?

Put another way, do we have more civilization when people choose these behaviors and ways of thinking? An honest person would have to say yes. We’d rather live with kind, unselfish, honest neighbors than mean, self-serving, dishonest neighbors.

photo by Hakan Erenler

We’d rather live in the light than in darkness.

So let’s spend this month trying a little more intentionally to add light to the world each day. The world will be that tiny bit brighter. And, if we do that every day, it may become a habit beyond the month.

Go ahead; #LightTheWorld.

Lighting the World from the Inside Out

This year’s Light the World campaign is underway, started by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but intended for everyone during this Christmas season. It’s about service—or whatever else brings light and goodness, in mostly small ways, to those around us. Last year there were daily ideas, something like doing a good deed each day. It’s a different way of giving than the hectic Christmas shopping way.

This year the calendar for Light the World has a weekly focus. Week one, going on right now, is about the world, globally. Week two is about your community. Week three is about your family. Then week four is about your personal faith.

calendar available here

I like how the direction draws closer and closer to home as we celebrate Christmas. I think this will help me feel the meaning of Christmas—and the way Jesus gave, personally, with loving kindness.

Looking at the order, from global to local to personal, I’m reminded that one of the 12 Rules for Life that Jordan Peterson talks about goes the other direction. It’s “Rule 6: Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.” While the direction is opposite, I don’t think we’re really in disagreement. Both of these are about making little improvements where we see a need around us.

The Light the World campaign is about service, about doing good. Dr. Peterson’s approach is actually about where to start your criticism, and advises starting with yourself and cleaning up what you can close by first. He begins this chapter with some of life’s awful things, pointing out that there are two ways to respond: vengeance or transformation. He covers Tolstoy, Nietzsche, and Solzhenitsyn, before getting to this advice:

Clean Up Your Life                                                                               

Consider your circumstances. Start small. Have you taken full advantage of the opportunities offered to you? Are you working hard on your career, or even your job, or are you letting bitterness and resentment hold you back and drag you down? Have you made peace with your brother? Are you treating your spouse and your children with dignity and respect? Do you have habits that are destroying your health and well-being? Are you truly shouldering your responsibilities? Have you said what you need to say to your friends and family members? Are there things that you could do, that you know you could do, that would make things around you better?

Have you cleaned up your life?

If the answer is no, here’s something to try: Start to stop doing what you know to be wrong. Start stopping today….

Stop acting in that particular, despicable manner. Stop saying those things that make you weak and ashamed. Say only those things that make you strong. Do only those things that you could speak of with honour….

Don’t blame capitalism, the radical left, or the iniquity of your enemies. Don’t reorganize the state until you have ordered your own experience. Have some humility. If you cannot bring peace to your house, how dare you try to rule a city? Let your own soul guide you. Watch what happens over the days and weeks. When you are at work you will begin to say what you really think. You will start to tell your wife, or your husband, or your children, or your parents, what you really want and need. When you know that you have left something undone, you will act to correct the omission. Your head will start to clear up, as you stop filling it with lies. Your experience will improve, as you stop distorting it with inauthentic actions. You will then begin to discover new, more subtle things that you are doing wrong. Stop doing those, too. After some months and years of diligent effort, your life will become simpler and less complicated. Your judgment will improve….

Perhaps you will become an ever-more-powerful force for peace and whatever is good.

Perhaps you will then see that if all people did this, in their own lives, the world might stop being an evil place. After that, with continued effort, perhaps it could even stop being a tragic place. Who knows what existence might be like if we all decided to strive for the best? Who knows what eternal heavens might be established by our spirits, purified by truth, aiming skyward, right here on the fallen Earth?

Set your house in perfect order before you criticize the world.

It’s another way of going about it, but I think the message is pretty similar: look around you—and within you—and find some small thing to improve. That’s how you make things actually better.

There’s an old phrase: “I love humanity; it’s people I can’t stand.”[i] Those are the words of a wannabe world changer who can’t even handle close interpersonal relationships. Changing the world doesn’t work on a wholesale level. It’s not even done readymade. It has to be individually tailored. One person at a time, starting with self.

In the Light the World campaign, even the suggested global ideas are personal small acts you can do, like learning something or listening to someone. I think that’s the right way.

As with lighting one candle from another, once you have yours burning brightly, then you can help light others—and magically there’s no loss in your light. There’s just more total light.

If we can think about that and try it out for this month, while we’re celebrating the birth of the actual Light of the World, maybe it will become a habit. And then we can become “an ever-more powerful force for peace and whatever is good.”

There’s a short video for each week this month. Below is the one for this first week. I love the juxtaposition of the small acts of service we do, and the acts of service our Savior did as our example.

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[i] I saw this attributed to Albert Einstein, but I’m uncertain about the accuracy. A variation, using “mankind” in place of “humanity,” is said by Linus in a Peanuts cartoon by Charles Schulz.

Light in a Dark World

It’s Christmas season, which officially is only a single day several weeks from now, it’s really a season. Parts of it (music—because it takes time to learn and prepare) start months ahead of time. I plan my Christmas card photo pretty far in advance too. This year I’m featuring my new grandbaby and her big brother in the nativity scene. This photo isn’t one I’m using, but here’s the little newborn.

Christmas reminds us of family, goodwill, giving, kindness—all things the Savior whose birth we celebrate would want us to remember. So it’s bigger than one day will hold. And we can sure use more of those good things for a longer time. Maybe long enough to become a habit, which some say takes at least three solid, consistent weeks.

If you want to enjoy the whole season—in ways totally separate from hustle, bustle, shopping, and pressure—then maybe you’ll want to join me in a celebration called #LightTheWorld. This is an initiative of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, but it’s for everyone. 

We did this last year too.

The idea is that each day you do something, small or large—but more likely small—that is a good deed, or kindness, or something that will make things better for others.

LightTheWorld Calendar

You can share your light in any way you want, but there’s a calendar with ideas for each day, if you’d like to follow that, with a scripture theme, a one-minute video, and ideas of things to do for each day. You can get all of this in any of 30 languages, so it really is meant for the whole world.

Here’s the video for Day 1:

You can see what other people have been doing. And you can share what you’ve done, if you want to. And if you use the hashtag #LightTheWorld on social media, then it’s searchable in ways hashtags are (a mystery to me).

I don’t know how we’ll measure the additional light after the 25 days. But I believe that we’ll each have a sense of greater light in and around us as we do this.

It’s an experiment, and experience, worth doing.

Lighting the World

At The Spherical Model we have an axiom that civilization requires certain principles, but it can start with an individual, or a single family, and spread from there.

So this Christmas season Mr. Spherical Model and I are joining in with an initiative called Light the World. It’s a countdown to Christmas, an advent calendar, of service. The idea is that small, individual acts of service add up, until each tiny spark of light, combined with those tiny sparks by many many others, lights the whole world.

The initiative comes from The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. You’ll understand the connection between Christ’s life and what we can do in our lives, from this beautiful little video:

This video comes in 33 languages, if you go find it at Mormon.org and look for the “Languages” drop down menu near the bottom.

There's a downloadable calendar, with a suggestion for each day, with a theme such as “Jesus Helped Others to See and So Can You,” followed by three suggestions of things you might do that day, in this case:

·         Find an eyeglasses collection box and donate an old pair.

·         Point out a virtue in someone they don’t see in themselves.

·         Promote a vision charity on social media. You could even use the eyeglasses emoji.

That’s for December 3. Here’s another, from December 8: “Jesus Prayed for Others and So Can You”:

·         Think about a friend that’s going through some rough challenges. Say a prayer for them.

·         Ask God how you can be an answer to someone else’s prayer.

·         When was the last time you prayed with your family? How about right now?

The ideas are mostly small, and doable without a lot of planning. And it’s up to you whether to choose these ideas, or something else—and whether to use the theme of the day or move them around to suit your life.

Some of them will be appropriate to post online, with the hashtag #LightTheWorld, so that others will be cheered and reminded, and share in the growing light. Other things might be private. You can decide.

You can print out the calendar and post it where you can see it every day. Or keep it available on your phone or other device: here.

There's a shorter version: here.

You can get a brief video related to the theme for each day: here.

Or there’s this list of random simple service ideas: here.

Research shows that if you want to develop a habit, somewhere around 14 days of daily practice is a minimum. A week ago we talked about a daily practice of giving thanks, to develop gratitude. If you add this 25-day practice of doing daily Christ-like service, you could have two life-enhancing habits by the end of the year.

While giving thanks and giving service both appear to be taking something out of you, it’s a truth about God that the most valuable things He gives us are infinite, like love; it doesn't diminish what you have when you give it to others. The more you give, the more flows into you. Your life will be more abundant when you do these giving things.

If you really want to have a happy Christmas, this daily giving of service with love is the way to get there. So this is for me—and for you. Let there be more light!