Shining For God

Shining for God
By: Ben Lowe, former Youth Group Counselor (2003-2008)

Read Matthew 5:14-16

What do people see when they look in you? I’m not asking about what people see when they look at you (many of us obsess far too much about this already), but what they see when they look in you; not just your physical appearance, but the whole witness of your life.

My brother has been in Haiti for almost a week now, but before that he was living the American Dream. He landed a well paying engineering job right out of college and, while the work wasn’t meaningful to him, he enjoyed having all the money to buy fancy toys like a fully loaded Mazda 6 and a big plasma TV. But God recently got to my brother in a big way and transformed his life. He began spending his free time serving the youth at church and building relationships with homeless folks in Boston. Then he quit his nice job to live in an orphanage in Haiti for the next six months, with few comforts and a sprawling refugee camp out back. On returning he plans to study urban youth ministry in seminary.

In the past, when I looked at my brother, I used to see someone who liked to party and was focused on making himself happy. Now I see someone who serves those around him and is living all out for God. When I think of him, my heart is full of praise to God.

This is how we are created to live. Not necessarily in an orphanage in Haiti, but in complete devotion to our Father, whatever that looks like for us. [Who knows, it may even compel you to run for Congress someday ;)] Simply put, there is no lukewarm compromise (see Rev 3:15-17). In Matthew 5, Jesus teaches that God has made us to shine like lights, illuminating the darkness, so that by our lives others may see and praise Him. Remember, our lives or “good works” are not the focus and shouldn’t call attention to us; they should point to God.

Pastor Ben points me to God. It has been a joy and privilege to serve with and learn from him over the last seven years. I have seen his devotion to Christ shine through his life, and one manifestation of this was his decision to leave a well-paying career for seminary and full-time ministry. When it comes to Pastor Ben’s many strengths and gifts, I know other people who are more dynamic preachers, more creative teachers, more professional worship leaders, more connected advocates, and so on. But I know few others who shine for God (and not themselves) as devotedly and authentically as Pastor Ben does. When I see Pastor Ben, I see God alive and moving, and my heart is full of praise.

So what do people see when they look in you? Do they see yet another person living for themselves and blending into the darkness? Or do they see someone filled with the light of God and shining brightly for Him? Is there anything holding you back from living more fully for God right now? We have only one life. Give it all to the one who gave all for us, and may our lives shine ever brightly for Him each day.

“Give up yourself, and you will find your real self. Lose your life and you will save it. Submit to death, death of your ambitions and favorites wishes every day and death of your whole body in the end: submit with every fiber of your being, and you will find eternal life. Keep back nothing. Nothing that you have not given away will ever be really yours. Nothing in you that has not died will ever be raised from the dead. Look for yourself, and you will find in the long run only hatred, loneliness, despair, rage, ruin, and decay. But look for Christ, and you will find Him, and with Him everything else thrown in.”
- C. S. Lewis, Mere Christianity