Shining Isn't So Beautiful After All

The Lord has been speaking to me a lot about SHINING lately.

Today I was reading in Romans 13 and came across this verse: "Put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light."

Whoa. Armor of light. That brought my mind racing all the way back to Ephesians 6:10-18, the passage that talks about the armor of God. These two pieces of equipment are one in the same. The armor of God includes the weapons God has given us to fight the enemy: the Word of God, prayer, faith, salvation, righteousness, and peace. Only by equipping ourselves with every piece of the armor -- without one piece missing -- can we fight the spiritual battle that we are in.

The passage in Romans 13 shed new light (Haha, see what I did there?) on my understanding of the armor of God. By using the prepositional phrase "of light," after "armor," Paul is tying back to what he proclaimed in one of his letters.

"...Become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life..." (Philippians 2:15-16)

Basically, Paul is commending us to shine like stars as Christians. We are to stand out among the darkness in our world, and we do this by proclaiming the Gospel of Christ. As Christians, we are called into relationship with God and community with other Christians in order to go out and tell the world about Jesus' saving working on the cross.

But how does one go about this? How does one truly shine the light of Christ, and not of self?

Last week I was browsing Facebook when one of my mentors posted this quote. I don't know who it's from or where she got it, but it struck something within me.

"Shining is always costly. Light comes only at the cost of that which produces it. An unlit candle does no shining. Burning must come before shining. We cannot be of great use to others without cost to ourselves."

I don't know if this is a Christian quote or just a philanthropic quote, but either way, it provides an answer to my question.

Shining cannot occur without burning. And burning hurts.

What does burning entail? Paul gives the answer coincidentally -- or maybe not -- just before he talks about shining like stars. A few verse earlier, we read...

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:

Who, being in very nature God,

did not consider equality with God

something to be grasped,

but made Himself nothing,

taking on the very nature of a servant,

being made in human likeness.

And being found in appearance as a man,

he humbled himself

and became obedient to death --

even death on a cross!" (Philippians 2:5-8)

That is death. That is burning. That is what Christ our Savior did on the cross for us, and we are called to do the same.

That brings me to another quote (Sorry, the Lord just speaks to me through quotes a lot! Haha.): "Jesus did not die on the cross just to save us from our sins; He died on the cross to teach us how to die on our own cross!"

WOW. That's powerful. No, we cannot forget that Jesus saved us from our sins on the cross. That itself is salvation -- the act of trust and surrendering to God that gives us eternal life. But there was more to Jesus' act than that!

Jesus taught you and me how to die on our own cross by his own act on the cross. Philippians 2:5-8 (above) perfectly correlates with this.

So the call to shining, the call to proclaiming the Gospel among all nations, first involves dying on our own cross. And what does dying on our cross entail?

Surrendering our rights.

Seeing ourself as "dirty, little objects" as C.S. Lewis puts it.

Wasting our life at the feet of Jesus all for His glory.

There is a difference between Christianity without a cross and Christianity with a cross. At an event called "Secret Church" put on by an external ministry organization called IMPACT at my school a little over a year ago, the speaker spoke about just this.

He said that Christianity WITHOUT a cross is comfortable with role-based Christianity. Christians who identify with this type of Christianity do not do anything; they stay put and just go through the motions of church and spiritual disciplines with no real growth.

On the other hand, Christianity WITH a cross consumes, hurts and costs. Christians who identify with this type of Christianity are ablaze for the Lord; they deny their desires and only have their eyes fixed on Jesus. They are not concerned with what the world thinks; they are only concerned about what God thinks. Although they may face persecution, they press onwards towards Christ -- the goal.

What sounds better to you? For me, it's the latter. No, I'm not there yet and every day I must die to myself over and over again. Yes, there are days where I fail. There are days where my flesh wins and my spirit loses. But in the long run, I'm on the road to dying on my cross, because I know that the reward of following God is greater than any temporary reward won by my own strength.

And that's what Thailand is all about. Yes, it may look pretty on the outside, but really, this opportunity is going to be challenging. I'm going to be in a totally foreign location with nothing familiar -- not even the language. But I know this is where the Lord has called me to, so I will not disobey Him.

I would rather die on the battlefield serving my Lord by wearing the armor of light than die in the comfort of my own culture.

"The only call is the cross."

This Little Light Of Mine

Last night I locked myself out of the house I live in. Thankfully, all I needed to do was call my roommate and ask her to bring my keys downstairs to the door.

She did just that, and the second I turned around, an elderly Somali woman was standing stationary in the middle of the sidewalk, her dark eyes glued on me.

I caught myself off-guard. Was their something about my appearance that bothered her? Was their something foreign on my clothing?

As nerve-wracking thoughts continued to rush through my head, I decided to approach the woman and ask her how she was. She mumbled something in her native language I could not understand. I asked her to repeat, and she pointed to the large smokey grey house that I call home.

I still couldn't understand her words, even with the gesture that accompanied her words. So I simply mustered, "This building is a residence house of North Central University."

She nodded, with a blank expression splatted across her wrinkled face. No words.

Awkwardly, I continued the conversation: "You have a beautiful purple scarf." The woman had a floral patterned violet scarf wrapped around her head, as many Muslim women do.

Her face lit up in a gorgeous smile. Although her teeth were yellow and crooked, a tangible joy appeared that wasn't there before.

The woman started rambling off some more words that were alien to me, and I just stood there in awe.

The self-conscious thoughts that flooded my head before faded in a snap. I suddenly realized that my simple compliment had a profound effect on this woman's emotions.

A brief yet insightful moment with a stranger where a piece of Jesus' love was revealed. How many of these experiences have you had with people? Maybe it was with a homeless man on the street, a businessman in the elevator, or a mom with three kids in the line at the grocery store.

There's a special kind of terminology I like to use when describing situations like this. Dr. Watson, a popular and lovable professor at my college, unofficially coined the phrase.

"divine appointment" - n.

A divine appointment is where God sovereignly brings people together to accomplish His will.
Sometimes it involved two people who know each other already. Other times, and in many cases, God draws the paths of two unfamilar and quite opposite people together.
This is what happened with me. A Christian 20-year-old college student meets an elderly Muslim woman. Two opposite ends of a spectrum clashing together. And it wasn't an accident.
In these scenarios, the Lord uses His sheep to reach the ones who are not in the pen of the Shepherd yet. Sometimes it's through the telling of the full Gospel message, other times it's just through a simple bit of encouragement that plants a seed. Either way, God treasures these moments. They are priceless in history.

Sadly, it is seldom that we remember or find value in brief interactions with people. As Americans, we tend to hurry through our days with one thing planted on our minds. Usually we're just thinking of where we're going and how we're going to get there.

People we pass along the way are merely living and breathing pieces of scenery. How sad is that?

What if, instead, we looked at people as how God sees them rather than judging them based on their physical appearance, past and character? We were all created beautifully in God's eyes.

Yesterday I was reminded of one simple truth.

Every second we spend on this planet is an opportunity to be a light. Whether we're surrounded by people or not, we still have a choice to make. Will I harness this moment and glorify God with it, or will I waste it away and make it something meaningless?

Time is a gift from God. We should never take one minute of this life for granted.

"Why, you do not even know what will happen tomorrow. What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes." (James 4:14)

Never expect that you will awaken tomorrow morning and be able to fix all of today's mistakes. If God is knocking on your heart to forgive, forgive NOW. If He is calling you to confession, then pour out your brokenness before the throne. Be always listening for the voice of the Holy Spirit and be obedient to His promptings.

Besides having a constant awareness of the still, small voice the Lord loves to speak through, go out and spread the Good News to those who are lost. God calls us to be children of light (Ephesians 5:8).

I think the Lord has placed three basic callings on our lives:

1. To love the Lord with all of our hearts, souls, and minds

2. A specific vocational calling (missionary, businessman, church nursery provider, etc.)

3. To reach out to the broken-hearted

God longs for each one of his sons and daughters to come home to Him and call Him "Father". We, as Christians, are His instruments.

"In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven." (Matthew 5:16)

We have some pretty big shoes to fill as we walk this planet. Although it may be overwhelming at times, remember that the Lord has given us authority over darkness and he is the ultimate source of power and strength.

Allow the Lord to place divine appointments in your life. Pray for them. Hunger for them. Seek them out. There are hundreds of people who cross your path every day who don't know the Lord, and all it takes is one simple "hello". I believe the Lord arranges divine appointments for us every day, but we are only able to experience these when we are in tune to His voice.

Live out the catchy song your teachers taught you in Sunday school.

This little light of mine,

I'm gonna let it shine...

Let it shine

Let it shine

Let it shine.