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Sparkle. That sparkle some people have. Where does it come from? Is it inborn or made by the way they handle life? We know it is not based on looks. Despite a large nose, Barbara Streisand has so much of it she is experienced by me and untold millions as stunningly beautiful. My best friend until his death at 33 had it. He had a hump back and never weighed over 70 pounds but he had sparkle. He had so much sparkle you quickly ceased to be aware of his handicaps. For years he could not get a job as an accountant because of his impression at first acquaintance. But when he finally did get a job he was so deeply loved by his co-workers that I have never seen a more beautiful outpouring of loving grief upon his death. Everyone wanted to tell their favorite Lamar Sliger story. They all had been swept away in his sparkle. It is a spiritual thing but we know it is not religious. Note how few TV evangelists have it. Listening to most of them is like eating frozen thumbtacks. Religion is doling out organized dogma. Spiritual is being infused with sparkle. Religion is reciting rules and regulations and spiritual is entering new vistas of consciousness. Everyone has some sparkle but it can be buried under so many religious and cultural wet blankets that it becomes more of a dim blur. When someone is ecstatic over something beautiful, sparkle will break through for a brief moment on the stage of his or her life. One of my neighbors has it. I finally got the answer to his sparkle one day when he hung a sack of goodies on his mailbox for the garbage men. His sparkle was love for the lowliest workers in our society. He has done this fordecades. He sees their beauty and it mirrors right back through him. When you find something that makes you sparkle, stick with it. We hear a lot about Jesus being the light of the world but we forget that he said, “You are the light of the world, a city set on a hill.” This means to me that all have the light but it needs to be seen and not hid. It is not there for us to flaunt in self-pride. It is there to warm us and those we meet each day of our lives. It is something to use to light your pathway and to share with others who hunger for more light.in their lives. I once asked an old Baptist preacher why more people didn’t want to go to church and be Christians and he said, “It is because so many who claim to be Christians have never really let the light of Christ shine through their being – their whole being. They have only given little pieces of their lives to God. They have not experienced enough light to have any left over for anyone else.” They are hiding their sparkle. I don’t think most of them are not fully aware that their sparkle is not seen because they have done a, b, c, d. and e, that their church said they must do to get to heaven. The simple truth is that they will never get to heaven unless they enter it in the here and now. Heaven is not a reward for doing a, b, c, d, and e. It is finding your inner sparkle and letting it escape through your love, kindness and little acts like being thoughtful of your garbage men. It is getting out of your little fearful, shriveled inner man and getting into a bigger love, a larger vision. John said , “The Light shines on every man who enters the world.” Let it out. Increasing the sparkle can be as easy as doing a deed in a spirit of love for someone. Yes, even a garbage man.
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