Be the Lower Light

When President Boyd K. Packer started his talk on Sunday morning during General Conference, I was listening to his story and wondering how/when he was going to connect it to a spiritual truth. When he made the connection about the Atonement and our Savior, I was very touched by his insights. I love the hymn he quoted, “Brightly Beams Our Father’s Mercy.“

1. Brightly beams our Father’s mercy
From his lighthouse evermore,
But to us he gives the keeping
Of the lights along the shore.

[Chorus]
Let the lower lights be burning;
Send a gleam across the wave.
Some poor fainting, struggling seaman
You may rescue, you may save.

2. Dark the night of sin has settled;
Loud the angry billows roar.
Eager eyes are watching, longing,
For the lights along the shore.

3. Trim your feeble lamp, my brother;
Some poor sailor, tempest-tossed,
Trying now to make the harbor,
In the darkness may be lost.

I’ve thought a lot over the past day or so about being a “lower light.” I looked up a bunch of references to lower lights and lighthouses, and realized that there are typically two lights on a lighthouse, referred to as the upper and lower lights. Both are needed for ships to safely reach the harbor. Christ is the Upper Light. He is always there, and His path is always clear. We are the lower lights–we must have our lights shining so that others can find their way back to our Savior. Without our lower lights being on, souls around us can be lost.

I am setting new goals for myself to be a strong “lower light” and to be one that weary travelers can look to for help reaching the harbors during the storms of life.

What can you do to strengthen your lower light?

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