BUSHELS

The scriptures speak of not hiding one's light under a bushel. It carries the meaning in part that having passions, but not letting them shine has no value.

Passion in this case it is a flame within the soul. And one related primarily to faith. While faith is associated with one believes, the expressions of that believe are “limbs” of our energy. They are the digits of action whereby we celebrate what we believe through what we do.

Thus we are commended to not hide our “light” or faith under a bushel. A bushel being whatever inhibits our actions. It might be fear of failure or disapproval. Or it could be a lack of confidence or any other of a multitudes of bushels that can cover our lives for one reason or another.

But to remove a bushel that restrains one's light doesn't mean it will shine according to our purposes. If it shines, it shines for the Lord. And more important is that the light is one that reflects in eternity. What shines forth in this life is important, but not as important as the eternal.

While most bushels are easy to recognize as a rule, there are times when one can ignore the ones that can truly hide one's light. Especially if we recognize that light is associated with truth and that is from God not our own glory if it is one where the Lord causes the illumination.

Such things as traditions, dogma, denominationalism and legalism can all be a form bushels. I say can as opposed to must. For it depends on whether such elements force you to hide God's truth under a bushel of someone's interpretation of truth.

In such cases, one might be seduced into thinking that just because they are “showing” their light to the world, it is hidden. Yet, it if not God's truth that is being shined, but something else, it is still a form of bushel.

Only we find it easy in those situations to pay more attention the “hiding” part than the bushel part of that admonition. We become so proud of our courage to not hide under a bushel of fear we forget that we have more than one bushel where our light is hidden. So it shine through a different covering and we are so happy, but sadly since the light is a hue of other than God's truth it really is still hidden in his eyes.

Perhaps in this modern age, we don't have too many of the bushels like they used in those days lying around the house. A paper bag might be our choice, but we all do carry things in some form of container. And part of this idea of a bushel is to not let what we have to carry in the sense of the chores of life become a covering that interferes with our ability to let God's light shine through our lives.

Traditionally real bushels are one's made of the kind of material that would burn. At the time when this admonition was given, most people used bushels for carrying items such as harvested crops. They were in a way like a basket, which people could identify with since they used them everyday.

But just like a real bushel, when something covers the light that God wants to shine from inside us it can end up catching fire in the sense that his spirit can make that particular bushel useless in one way or another if we use it for a covering. That is to say, if something in our lives becomes a hindrance to what God intends us to do, he can make it so unappealing so we will be motivated to abandoned it. All for the sake of making sure it doesn't keep that light he wants to shine from burning bright.

Yet God still grants us free will. So even if a given bushel keeps us from letting God's light of truth shine from our lives, sometime we still cling to it anyway. Oh it might be full of holes (as in flaws or things that don't satisfy) but at times the human heart full of pride just stubbornly refuses to abandoned a given bushel.

To be free in Christ is to listening to the Lord's spirit and allow his light of truth to shine in a way he chooses in our lives. It is not simply discarded one bushel for another as is so often done in our desire to serve God, but only our own terms.

May God strike his match of pure inspiration in all that will listen so that his light of truth will shine from our candle of being. And may he given us the sight to know what bushels we keep in our soul's house that we just can't surrender that keep hidden what God desires in our lives.