Shine on

If you think about it, light is a beautiful thing. I like running early in the morning. I'll often watch the sun rise and I'll run headfirst into the light of a new day. No matter how rough the night might have been, for at least a moment, that light looks and feels like hope.

Sometimes we'll get powerful thunderstorms rolling through here and we'll lose power and the house will go dark. But at the first sight of a flickering candle or the beam of a small flashlight, the storm no longer seems so fierce.

As Christians, we are called to be the light of the world. That's not to proclaim that we are better than the world, but rather we are a source of hope for the many people looking for that flicker in their stormy lives.

I am afraid, though, our message is often filled with more arrogance than light. I think too often we come at people as a raging inferno instead of a gentle and easy morning sunrise. And I think too often we leave people squinting and aggravated after being hit with our bright lights while they are simply trying to find their way home on a dark night.

I love these words Jesus spoke to us in Luke chapter 11:

“No one after lighting a lamp puts it in a cellar or under a basket, but on a stand, so that those who enter may see the light." To me, these words speak a beautiful image of people being drawn to our light and not attacked by it.

It begs a question, really. Do you have to flip on your high beams for people to know you are light in this world? Or are you instead a lamp on a stand that people are drawn to? Are you someone who enters people's darkness claiming to have all their answers, or someone people are drawn to because you'll give them the light and space they need to figure out their own?

Think about it. Who are the people in your life who have been the "brightest" lights. My guess is they aren't the loudest, they aren't the most authoritative, they don't have all the answers and they likely aren't superstars at anything.

They are likely simple people who send you a card when you need it, a smile when you least expect it. They are likely people who are not critical of who you are or who you've been, but they are graciously there for you to lean on as you become who you're becoming. They are likely a morning sun that greets you and not the high beams that defeat you.

Those high beam people, their light often shines through what they know and what they believe - the less you know and believe what they do the brighter the light gets. The more narrowly it is aimed at you. Until it's oppressive.

Those light on a stand people, though. They just keep shining, no matter what you know or believe. Because that's who they are. They just shine. Being a light isn't a mission or a strategy - it's a character trait.

More so than at any time in my life, I see people battling storms. I see them racing from room to room just looking for refuge from the wind and rain and relentlessness of it all. Be the light that makes them stop in the doorway, and peek in, and see that hopeful light dancing on a nightstand. As they stand there, contemplating, be an invitation, not a condemnation.

I love these words from the NEEDTOBREATHE song Shine On:

I was with you in the valley
And up upon that hill
So take just one more step in front of you
For I am with you still you still
​And you're not alone

Isn't that the message of the flickering light - you can take one more step because you are not alone.

Isn't that the light so many people are looking for?

Today, shine on....