Though it varies by time of year and location on the planet, twilight is roughly 90 minutes. This is true of both morning twilight – the early dawn that glows with light over the horizon just before the sun crests into view and evening twilight – the glowing beauty of the sun that radiates after it has departed below the horizon. Twilight hours, also known as the the fair light hours, are known for their mysterious beauty. You cannot see the sun, but its presence is clearly there as the atmosphere is lit up by the many colors created by the scattering of light during this stage of the earth’s orbit around the sun. We did an entire episode in season one about Baron Rayleigh who discovered Rayleigh scattering – the reason for the vibrant colors during twilight.
But today, I’m not interested in the colors of the sunrise and sunset. I’m interested in the phenomenon we take for granted during these twilight hours – that the sun isn’t visible, but the effects of it are. Sunrise’s glow brings with it hope of it’s future solar appearance and sunset leaves us with a slowly diminishing reminder of the sun’s presence throughout our day. There is a word for this phenomenon. When the effects of something are seen, but the thing itself is yet invisible there is a term – the word is ‘manifestation’
I’m Scott Beyer and this is the Love Better podcast where we explore the truths and lies about love and more importantly how to turn love into a skill – something we can get better at and hone along the way.
Manifestation – Something that becomes visible or apparent as an effect of an unseen cause.
Gravity itself cannot be seen, but its manifestation is observed in the way objects fall to the ground. This is also true of magnetism – you can’t see the magnetic field, but as the magnet snaps to your refrigerator – the magnetic field is manifested. From ears popping at high altitude to the swaying of trees in the wind to the glow of a lightbulb – thins like air pressure, electricity, and wind are all made manifest while remaining invisible. We can’t see them, but we know they are there by the way they influence the world around us.
This same idea of manifestation is seen in the ways of civilizations. The Cold War, an ideological conflict between the U.S. and the Soviet Union was invisible, but its manifestation was seen in the arms race, the Space Race, and proxy wars like Vietnam.
Or the industrial revolution of the 18th and 19th centuries – industrialization was an idea, but ideas are powerful things, and cities like Detroit, Pittsburgh, and Chicago exist as American life became less agrarian and more urban. From brownstones to warehouses to the public education system – industrialization made itself manifest in the very fabric of Americana.
The world is full of powerful forces that lay hidden below the horizon. Whether you are talking about unseen physical forces or the ideas that lead to revolutions – we live in a world of manifestation. The invisible shapes the visible.
In Paul’s letter to the Corinthians, he posits that there are three powerful ideas that shape the world more than any other – “So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Corinthians 13:13)
Faith certainly shapes the world – wars have been fought over religious movements, nations shaped by the leaders we place (or misplace) our faith in, and great acts of faith are the pedestals we place our heroes upon.
As the book of Hebrews says, “faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Manifested faith is seen in every level of society.
What about hope? And in Paul’s letter to the Romans, he writes, “For in this hope we were saved. Now hope that is seen is not hope. For who hopes for what he sees? But if we hope for what we do not see, we wait for it with patience.”
People live and die by their hope. Hope, this invisible, intangible thing – has lead immigrants across oceans and along harrowing pilgrimages to new lands of hopeful opportunity. Hope has built skyscrapers, invented the computer, and fired the passions of great inventors and explorers throughout the millennia.
Yes, indeed, faith and hope are pillars of change in this world… but this podcast isn’t called faith better and hope better – because Paul got it right when he said – the greatest of these is love.
The manifestation of love has done more to change this world than anything else ever has or ever will.
Love is the unseen, intangible force that produces all good things. Love of the labor produces craftsmanship and artistry. Every beautiful masterpiece, all the inspiring architecture of the world, and every beautiful sonnet is a manifestation of the love of the craftsman.
In the book of 1st Samuel, we read of the love of Hannah that prayed for and produced one of the greatest judges of Israel’s history. Without Hannah’s love, there is no Samuel to anoint David king and usher in the golden age of Israel.
When Adam and Eve ate from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil – it produced death. Yet, that other intangible thing called hope exists because God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son so that we might live through Him. Love holds the fabric of humanity’s existence together.
Love cannot be seen, but it manifests itself in extraordinary ways. It is the most powerful force in the universe. Love can produce the courage to run into burning buildings to save one soul. Love fills funeral home parking lots with people who have come to say goodbye to those who are already gone and love aches with empty mourning in the lonely hours of widowhood. Love suffers long through the sleepless nights of newborn babies and love puts the pot of coffee on before the fair light of dawn has even touched the sky to find the energy to work a job that keeps the lights on and the water running for a family that may take it all for granted.
And yet all of these things, from work to parenting to marriage to relationships with friends and foe alike takes a dark turn when love is removed. The parent without love turns abusive, neglectful, and even dangerous. The marriage without love is bitter and resentful, and friendships without love are just manipulation in disguise.
As Paul told the Corinthians in chapter 13:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. (1 Corinthians 13:1-3)
Sure, you can’t see love… but you know what it feels like when it’s gone. Speeches, deeds, and even great acts of service done without love are empty gestures. You know what it is like to be flattered with words without love behind them, or to be treated lavishly only to wait for the person to tell you what they want because their kindness comes with strings, not selflessness.
A world without love is like a sunrise with no sun or trying to sail a ship with no wind… and the only thing worse than a world with no love is a world with a love of the wrong things.
Psalm 52:3 condemns the wicked because "You love evil more than good, and lying more than speaking what is right."
And in Micah 3:2, the prophet rebukes the ungodly with the chilling analysis that they, “hate the good and love the evil, who tear the skin from off my people and their flesh from off their bones."
Or John 3:19 that explains why Jesus was crucified. Why would such a good, merciful, and compassionate man be hated and murdered? John tells us why. “this is the judgment: the light has come into the world, and people loved the darkness rather than the light because their works were evil." (John 3:19)
The world doesn’t need more love. We already have lots of love. We love money. We love pleasure. We love the things of this world. Mankind abounds at being lovers of self. We love to be distracted and entertained. We love a good piece of gossip and an opportunity to judge others. We love to rationalize our bad behaviors, and we love our excuses.
We don’t need more love – we need to love better.
Because we are already living in a world with abundant love. How do I know – because the unseen love we have manifests itself in the world around us.
Jesus once told His disciples that they would know things by their fruits. In His words, “You will know them by their fruits. Grapes are not gathered from thorn [bushes,] nor figs from thistles, are they? "So every good tree bears good fruit, but the bad tree bears bad fruit. (Matthew 7:16-17)
Manifested love is the fruit from the unseen plant. If you want to know what you love – look at the fruit.
Jesus told Peter that if he loved Him, Peter needed to care for the sheep Jesus died for. Peter spent the rest of his life caring for Jesus’ people – I know Peter loves Jesus because Peter’s life bore fruit.
The apostle John said it another way.
“Little children, let's not love with word or with tongue, but in deed and truth.” (1 John 3:18)
Words can be empty, but actions rarely are.
The New Age self-help gurus talk about manifesting your dreams, manifesting abundance, and manifesting your future. ‘Manifesting’ is a popular idea today. If you have read any management or self-improvement books, you’ve probably heard the term used. The concept is often associated with the Law of Attraction, where people believe that by focusing on their desires, visualizing them, and acting as if they have already achieved them, they can "manifest" those desires into reality.
Setting goals and focusing on them certainly does help you to get organized and set priorities, but from a biblical worldview… I don’t know that it is really that important that we manifest our dreams or that we even have abundance here in this life at all. After all, I know Jesus didn’t dream of being crucified and He certainly didn’t have a life of abundance and riches down here.
While some aspects of manifestation resemble biblical principles (like faith, perseverance, and trusting God), the idea that we can control reality with our thoughts alone is not biblical.
Here is what we can control. We can control what we love and then put our time and energy into serving those things. Instead of loving money or pleasure – we can love people and God.
And when we do that, we become the manifestation of God’s love. We become the fairlight of the Son that sits on the other side of the horizon. When Christians love God and love others, we become the manifestation of His light, just as Jesus said,
"Let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven."
The apostle John reemphasizes this point when he says, “No one has ever seen God; if we love one another, God abides in us and his love is perfected in us."
This world sits in the twilight. There is still a lot of darkness here, but there are also some extraordinary Christians doing amazing things, reminding us all that the Son isn’t far off.
This year is season 3 of the Love Better podcast and this year, through episodes like this one and interviews with extraordinary people, I hope we can all learn to love better because the world needs His light and the more we work together to love like Jesus and love the things Jesus loves, the more it feels like the sun is rising, not setting.
So, learn to love better – let’s learn to change the world one ray of light at a time.
As always, thank you for listening and hopefully we've done something to help make your life a little bit better. If you have a chance to rate, review or share the podcast it would be a blessing. By sharing with others or leaving a review on Apple Podcast or Spotify, you help us reach more people.
I mentioned at the end of last season, that I was revamping my website. An updated that was LONG overdue. A special thanks to Brady Cook and Diakonos Marketing for bringing BibleGrad.com into the modern era! If you are interested, you can sign up for a video series challenge through the website called the #HopeDoes challenge. Two short videos each week and a chance to grow in your hope by doing hopeful things. Just go to BibleGrad.com and scroll down and enter your email to get started.
Or maybe you have a fun or obscure history account, a feel-good news story, or a riveting scientific fact you think could help us love better. If so, I’d love to hear it! Feel free to email me at scott@biblegrad.com
And if you are ever in the Louisville, KY area, I’d like to invite you to come worship with me and my family at the Eastland congregation. We meet for worship every Sunday and have Bible classes for all ages on Wednesdays, too. If you want more information about Eastland, visit us at eastlandchristians.org. We would love to worship God with you and help you on your walk of faith.
And as always, until next time, “Remember, you are loved, so go… love better.”
