By Jim Schacht

“Act on the Light that you have and more will be given to you.” A wise Quaker in meeting has said this repeatedly to me and I believe it lies at the core of living as a Quaker. But four corollaries of this are often ignored.

1. There is always more Light. It doesn’t stop coming and no one saw it all.
2. We have to act on the Light we have. We can’t wait until we have all the Light because we never will.
3. When we get more Light we need to be willing to change or reevaluate what we are doing.
4. We must forgive and understand when we or others act on our Light and it turns out badly.

I would argue that the biggest black marks in our history – Indian schools and solitary confinement – happened because we failed to keep learning. Acting in response to the horrible corruption and incompetence of Indian Agents, and the horrible conditions in prisons were noble and I am sure Spirit lead actions. But we didn’t learn or speak out and challenge when we saw issues. We did not challenge ourselves and other religions when we saw the harm, or we failed to see the harm in front of us.

We must act, learn, change and forgive.