Why do you have a light? The simple answer is to shine it. That’s all; just let your light shine.
That’s a short devotion for this week. Just let your light shine. No more needs to be said, or does it?
"la nuit blanche – not retouched" by Dom Dada is marked with CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.
If I’m just content with saying, “I let my light shine, so I’m good,” and move on, have I missed anything? Yes, yes, I have, but what?
To figure out what we are missing, if we assume all we have to do is “shine our light,” we must first understand what “shining my light” means. Second, we must evaluate what seeing that “light” means from someone else’s perspective. Finally, we need to ask ourselves a very difficult question that leads to hard answers, but I’ll save that for the end.
What does shining my light mean? Well, what is “your light” in the first place? The answer is in the Third Reading from week 17’s lesson:
6 Since we have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us, each of us is to exercise them accordingly: if prophecy, according to the proportion of his faith;
7 if service, in his serving; or he who teaches, in his teaching;
8 or he who exhorts, in his exhortation; he who gives, with liberality; he who leads, with diligence; he who shows mercy, with cheerfulness.
9 Let love be without hypocrisy. Abhor what is evil; cling to what is good.
Romans 12:6-9 (NASB)
If our light means our gifts, then shining our light means using our gifts so others can benefit from them. A shone light means a revealed light that can beam out as far as the source is capable of casting those beams. It is a light that is either focused light a flashlight or broadcast indiscriminately for all to see. Shifting this wording to gifts means your talents and abilities are not hoarded for yourself, kept under wraps, or shrouded away from people. They are used.
“I’m not good enough at flangengurking!” Yes, I made that word up. The point is we all don’t think we’re good enough to put our gift or ability on display or utilized by others. We are wrong. The key is heart position. Don’t run around seeking to use gifts so others will take notice of them. Don’t even go actively seeking people who need what you can do. God knows what you can do and how well. When the time is right, He will put the person or people who need what you do in your path. He will send them to you. All we need to be ready to do is serve.
7 “Ask, and it will be given to you; seek, and you will find; knock, and it will be opened to you.
8 “For everyone who asks receives, and he who seeks finds, and to him who knocks it will be opened.
9 “Or what man is there among you who, when his son asks for a loaf, will give him a stone?
10 “Or if he asks for a fish, he will not give him a snake, will he?
11 “If you then, being evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father who is in heaven give what is good to those who ask Him!
12 “In everything, therefore, treat people the same way you want them to treat you, for this is the Law and the Prophets.
Matthew 7:7-12 (NASB)
This scripture talks to us about our asking, our prayer, and God responding to us. We are to emulate our example. We are to be the hands and feet of Jesus just as others are sometimes the hands and feet for us. If we flip this around and become the person to whom the asking is being presented, how are we emulating God or Christ if we turn people away when we can fulfill their needs?
42 “Give to him who asks of you, and do not turn away from him who wants to borrow from you.
Matthew 5:42 (NASB)
The second point is to evaluate what our gifts look like from someone else’s perspective. This might be someone we know and someone we don’t know. The point is to figure out how other people perceive our gifts. Why? Because if they are misunderstood or seen in a bad light, no one will approach us to seek our help. The question becomes, what colors their perception of our gifts?
For one, the viewer’s life experiences change how they see us. If their lives are vastly different from ours, cultural norms are vastly different, or societal perceptions are dramatic, they can shift how they see what we do. Understanding the perspective of someone else, “walking a mile in their shoes” so to speak, goes a long way to alleviating any misconceptions or misunderstandings in this realm.
Another coloration to how our gifts are perceived is our motivations and heart position. This becomes an issue, especially when we are tired or don’t have the energy we normally have but are still going through the motions. More importantly, this is how God sees what we do. God knows why we act, our true feelings, and our thoughts that drive every action. However, those who view us in the midst of our talents and gifts do not but sometimes, when we aren’t aware of it, our carefully manicured façade cracks, slips, and reveals our true intentions. At those times, we make real impressions on people, good and bad. It is at those times when strangers believe they can see the truth about us, and we never know it. It is at these times we can do the most good or the most harm for the Christian cause of making disciples for Jesus. How do we guard against doing damage and make sure we do good? That’s at the heart of the third point.
What about me doesn’t represent God well? What do I do that is seen as hypocritical by secular people compared to what God’s Word says about believers? That last bit is the really important part, and it gets overlooked by a lot of Christians.
The Bible is the most popular, most published, most translated, and most-read book in all the world. More people, believers and nonbelievers, have read this book, but why is that important? It means almost everyone you meet knows or thinks they know what the Bible says about how Christians should act. They have preconceived ideas about what we should be doing in every case. In every case. Most people do not study their Bible, and nearly all secular people who have read it read it once like a novel to get it done and say they did it. But they don’t know what it means. They haven’t studied how the scripture interacts with one another. They don’t dig into the context, the Greek language behind the words, or contemplate the meaning of those words.
Do you?
That last paragraph has profound implications for your life and mine. If we treat God’s word no differently than the secular people, having read the Bible once to say we did, and then leave it on the shelf, how are we different? Christians are supposed to live differently, act differently, love differently, and be different from worldly people. How can we know what that difference looks like if we don’t study the manual God gave us for doing that? If you think you have a better way to live and believe that you should show it in everything, you do. It should flavor every decision you make, and it should be involved in the motivations behind every action you take. If it isn’t, the hard question becomes, are you any different from secular people who think they know what scripture says?
27 Now you are Christ’s body, and individually members of it.
28 And God has appointed in the church, first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healings, helps, administrations, various kinds of tongues.
29 All are not apostles, are they? All are not prophets, are they? All are not teachers, are they? All are not workers of miracles, are they?
30 All do not have gifts of healings, do they? All do not speak with tongues, do they? All do not interpret, do they?
31 But earnestly desire the greater gifts. And I show you a still more excellent way.
1 Corinthians 12:27-31 (NASB)