© 1976 The Urantia Book Fellowship (formerly Urantia Brotherhood)
“Let your light so shine before men that they may see your good works and be led to glorify your Father who is in heaven.” (UB 140:3.13) So spoke Jesus to the apostles in the ordination sermon; and for over 1900 years since then, men have carried out this injunction according to their own enlightenment and conceptual capacity.
We, as Urantians, are individually faced with the challenge of how do we let our “light so shine” that others, on seeing it, may be tempted to follow suit, each according to his own understanding.
If we are to attract others to the URANTIA revelation, we can do so only by living its teachings, for all other avenues of persuasion are closed to us. We cannot live the teachings of The URANTIA Book until we become so saturated with them that we look out from within ourselves upon all that surrounds us and can logically interpret and evaluate all we behold from the viewpoint of the teachings we have so slowly absorbed.
Implied in this concept is the fact that men cannot truly do good works until they have first put their own personal house in order. Jesus is so effective as a teacher because he is exactly what he has taught us and his universe. Today the world staggers under the burden of good works imposed upon it by those who think that by giving and receiving good works, man will be instantly bettered. The URANTIA Book calls these people “idealists without ideas.”
Letting one’s light shine does not mean putting on a brilliantly reflective armor that shines by the impact of another light source upon it. The light comes from its own source within each enlightened individual. We thus do not put on a facade for the world to see, but we try to let the world see us as we really are, unafraid of being thus.
There is no easy path to success in achieving this inner light, for there are no simple directions to follow; and all success is totally relative. There are as many paths as there are individuals to follow them, for God has decreed that each human personality shall be unique and has insured that they shall remain so by mandating the complete overall personal autonomy of the human will. By doing 5o, he has opened a near infinite number of pathways to himself from the worlds of space and insured that in time, the full potential of all experience in space will be achieved through living actualization. Consider the responsibility each of us has to develop this inner light, each by our own unique personality. Understanding this leads to the conclusion that generalizations are impossible.
Yet we can discern everything external to our inner selves, from the viewpoint of The URANTIA Book teachings if we learn to look at all of life from that viewpoint. How, then, can a hypothetical Urantian look out upon his environment and its inhabitants? What does he see?
Our hypothetical Urantian is first aware of his or her own uniqueness and simple human dignity and its inherent responsibilities, aware of his own imperfections and partial growth, and assured that he will eventually become much more than he can ever anticipate.
He sees as a fact of reality the same simple human dignity in each person he meets, and he recognizes it with quiet appreciation. Yet he is also aware that with each person he meets, he stands in the presence of another mighty Thought Adjuster. In a crowd of diverse beings, he sees each with an Adjuster who has lovingly selected that individual and is working as hard on them as his own is on him. He sees every individual in the company of a silent partner — God, in which relationship nothing is impossible.
He looks out upon our physical environment with the realization that it is the handiwork of the sons of the Sons of God. It cannot be perfect; yet its imperfections are of a higher order than his own, and he humbly realizes how far he must go. He nevertheless feels no regrets that he was not born in a better time and place for he sees that the challenge of these imperfections is his pathway to growth, and only by growth may he eventually see God.
He does not mandate himself to feel love for other people. He strives to understand each one he mets, knowing full well that in the other a Thought Adjuster is working; and he knows that as his appreciation of the other grows, love will rise spontaneously within himself. In looking at others, he strives to see more of their potential than their present actuality. Yet he is never out of touch with the immediate reality of things and persons. He has learned to “Put your trust in the Lord, but keep your powder dry.”
He recognizes his fellow men as brothers, not of an earthly family, but because of the Fatherhood of God to all. He knows that only in the presence of others are opportunities presented for his own personality development and unification; and he has long since discovered as fact that this growth is possible only by interaction, never by exploitation. He recognizes others’ viewpoints because he appreciates the personal uniqueness of their source.
He is very, very slowly learning the basics of self-control, that he alone can control his thoughts; and his thoughts only control his feelings. Thus, he can control the latter. He tries to see reality as it really is, not as his feelings seem to react to it.
He accepts the uncertainties and vicissitudes of existence as part of an imperfect world which is full of opportunities. He revels in the fact that evolution, his own development, is but creativity in time; and he is deeply grateful to a beneficent God, who, by establishing this technique for growth, has made man a co-creator of a new entity, with God, the Thought Adjuster, and man fused into a new being of ever eternal potential. Man thus actively participates in his own destiny as a co-creator. What more can we ask for?
—A rambling, itinerant Urantian