Let your light shine

“You are the light to the world; a city built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand so as it can give light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before men that they may see your good deeds and praise your father in Heaven…”Matthew5:14-16 (NIV).

I would be so wrong to claim that I have been a perfect light to the world around me through my actions, yet the bible states clearly that, that is what God expects of us. Salvation is the best gift that we ever received from God. It was a gift of love that was shown to us through the death of a king who humbled himself to the level of a lamb to be crucified for our sake. I always like to put it this way, ‘I was dust (and still am) a flower that is bright and shining today yet withers very fast and loses its meaning and value, yet he chose to leave is throne to die for me that I may find meaning and have eternal life’.

He died for all of us, we are saved through grace and the only thing that he requires of us is to be an example to the world through good deeds. Our salvation is the light that we have to shine to the world through good deeds. He even goes further and gives us the grace, the strength and all the guidance that we need to be good light. But what do we do?

Here is a story that I read which challenged me a lot:

Several years ago a young priest moved to London. He often took a bus from his home to the down town area. Some weeks after he arrived, he had occasionally to ride a bus. When he sat down one day, he discovered that the driver had accidentally given him twenty pence too much change. As he considered what to do, he thought to himself. ’You better give back the twenty pence. It would be wrong to keep it.’ Then he thought, ’Oh, he forgot it, it’s only twenty pence.’ Who would worry about this little amount? Anyway, the bus company already gets too much fare, they will never miss it. Accept it as a gift from the Almighty God and keep quiet.’

When his stop came, the priest paused momentarily at the door, then he handed the twenty pence back to the driver and said, ‘here, you have given me too much change.” The driver with a smile said “aren’t you the new parish priest in this area? I have been thinking lately about going to worship at your church. I just wanted to see what you would do if I gave you too much change.” When the young priest stepped off the bus, his knees became weak and soft. He grabbed the nearest light pole and held for support, and looked up to the heavens and cried:”oh Jesus, I almost sold your Christianity for twenty pence!”

Mmmh..,yeah..that’s exactly what we do when we decide to hide our light under the bowl and exchange our Christianity for a dirty talk, a lie, flirting, dishonesty at work or even sit down and watch things go wrong yet we have the ability to say no or change them. Let’s choose to be different today and be the light we ought to be. We’ve got to keep our salvation tasty because when it loses taste it will be thrown away (matthew5:13). Choose to be light to someone in darkness today, because he/she may be watching you to be a sense of direction.

God bless you and have a fab week!