Playing Small

“We don’t know”  Matthew 21:23-32  From A Return to Love: Reflections on the Principles of a Course in Miracles, Marianne Williamson wrote: Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure… You are a child of God. Your playing small does not serve the world. There is nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.  Unlike the chief priests, Jesus and John the Baptist refused to play small. They carried out their ministry according to God’s perfect plan, never retreating or smoldering the light that was placed by God within them. Likewise, we don’t do ourselves or anyone else any favors by hiding who we are or hiding the authority by whom we have been given our gifts. Like the prophets before him John’s message of repentance had been heard before and like the hearers before, many in Jesus’ Palestine were used to ignoring them. Yet today, John’s message survives and continues to shine. If we are to claim the Kingdom of God we must over and again hear John’smessage and rise to proclaim the Gospel for which it lends. Remembering that the knowledge we have in God is only as important as our willingness to believe and respond to our calling.