You Are Meant to Shine

There's mist, drizzling down outside my bedroom window.  It's grey and white, somehow at the same time.  Soft.  Cold.

I look further.  In the distance, there's a tall structure standing silently.  It's probably a cell-phone tower.  But over the last few weeks, I've stared up at it and wondered.

Because it used to shine continually.  Every morning, every evening, the tower would shoot out a blinking light.  In the thickest storms when I could only see blackness, it would radiate.  In foggy mornings, I could push open my window and see the light.

But recently, the tower stopped shining.  Maybe the cell-phone company shut down or the tower has an electrical issue.  Yet I still look at it, hope to find it shining through this dreary mist.  Hope one day it will shine again.  Sometimes it does, fleetingly, and then turns off again.  

I used to think the phone tower was like Jesus, the way He always shines in our darkness.  Now I look at it differently.  The tower is a lot like me.

If we're followers of Jesus, we have a lot of responsibility.  The Bible calls us ambassadors for Christ.  We are light.  We are children of God.

I look at the tower outside my bedroom window.  That's us; that's me.  I'm standing in a dark world, a representative of the very Light of the World.  This life is my opportunity to radiate Jesus to a broken culture.  To broken hearts.  Not because of my own power but because of the strength He holds.

There are problems though.  Sometimes it's fear.  Pride.  Weakness.  Sin.  And my light flickers off.

I become a candle hidden under a basket.  The fog comes, the wind, and I'm an ugly grey tower, standing with my light turned off.

All my reasons for failing to represent Him are silly, especially when I look at what He has done.  Especially this last Easter.

I read about how strong Jesus' love is.  How He agonized because of what He would go through.  How He was abandoned by every friend.  How the entire city chanted His death.  He was flogged and mocked and beaten and struck and murdered.

Because He loved me.  Because He loved you.

When Jesus died, light fled from its Maker, and "there was darkness over all the land" (Matthew 27:45).  Are we doing the same?

Do we stand here in our age and hide our lights?  When He prompts us to share our faith, call our hurting friend, wake up early to spend time with Him, sacrifice ourselves and live for Him, do we do it?

Is Jesus our all?

I don't want to forget His story or let it become so old that it seems to lose its power.  I don't want Easter to have been a time we just skimmed through a tale we've heard a thousand times.  Jesus has given us life, a future, and a hope.  And He bled so we could have it.

You have a purpose.  Go shine your light in this broken world.  Listen for His voice and obey.

Jesus wants to be King, Lord.  That means He receives all the glory, honor, and praise.  That means He is ultimate in your life.

Yes, it's hard.  But, dear friend, He died for you.

This is a letter to myself, a reminder that my comfort isn't priority.  Because I often live like it is.  I live like my light doesn't need to shine when the wind blows, when darkness comes, when no one is looking.

I look outside my window where the cell phone tower sleeps in the mist, and I don't want to be like that.

Keep shining, friend.  He is the reason.  ♥

   

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, "All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.  Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

- Matthew 28:18-20

(ps)  Over the course of Easter, I enjoyed this music album that offers an instrumental approach to the story we celebrate... as you listen to it, remember the love that bled and the reason we shine.  For Him.

God's got this.  *hugs*

~♥~