The Light

(The following is an excerpt from Gary Mo’s upcoming book – THE SACRED IMPRINT).

What if the one thing the world is missing is that single unique thing you have to offer? Your heart. Your soul. Your passions. Your quirky smile. Your kindness.

Your everything.

What if the world is thirsty for the beauty of God as He expresses Himself through you, and what if they can’t even identify that thirst, and what if they just might need a drop of you to realize how thirsty they’ve been all along?

Everything is holding us back from offering ourselves to our world because it’s either too good to be true, or too difficult to believe. Or both.

We don’t have enough time.

We’re low on resources.

Our fears are too great to overcome.

We just don’t really believe that anyone needs us.

We just don’t really believe that we have anything of great value to offer the world.

We just don’t really believe.

WE JUST DON’T REALLY BELIEVE.

And then we bring those doubts and misgivings about ourselves to Scripture, and we read something like the chunk of truth found in the Sermon on the Mount, and then we’re screwed because Christ’s words don’t align with our beliefs about not really believing.

MATTHEW 5:14-16

“You are the light of the world. A town 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, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.

Please understand who Jesus is speaking to here. He’s looking into the worn and wrinkled faces of broken and battered people who had Palestinian dust pressed into every crevice of their skin. They have no clout in any arena where clout or influence is required. They are one half-step above the bottom of the smelly caste barrel that society accepted as normal. That’s the crowd who just heard Jesus say those words about light and towns and lamps and bowls.

And He’s making absurd comments about them.

About THEM.

As the religious leaders look on from a distance, they cannot believe what they’re hearing. And I’ve always wondered if it was at this point when one of the key religious leaders looked at another key religious leaders and said, “We gotta get rid of this guy.”

Because this Guy is saying these things:

“YOU are the light of the world.”

“Let YOUR light shine before people…”

“… so the world will see YOUR light…”

If they could afford a mirror, they’d look into it and see only darkness, if they had the strength to look into it at all. But not in the mind and heart of Jesus. Jesus always seems to see what no one else sees, and He has the uncanny ability to frame that vision into a truth that everyone must either love or hate.

JESUS ALWAYS SEEMS TO SEE WHAT NO ONE ELSE SEES, AND HE HAS THE UNCANNY ABILITY TO FRAME THAT VISION INTO A TRUTH THAT EVERYONE MUST EITHER LOVE OR HATE.

Can these words on this hillside possibly be true?

I get it – I get that we Christians are always very careful to give all the glory to God, and to say things like, “Oh. That wasn’t me. That was Jesus.” We really want for Jesus to be the light and to get all the glory, and make no mistake about it. Jesus is the light, and He deserves all the glory.

But you are imprinted with that exact same Light. It’s burned in you.

That doesn’t make us equal to Jesus or divine or anything like that. But in the mind of Jesus, broken people are also illuminating people, because the presence of Christ is not a respecter of persons. And people who are well aware of that personal brokenness will shine the brightest light.

PEOPLE WHO ARE WELL AWARE OF THEIR OWN BROKENNESS WILL SHINE THE BRIGHTEST LIGHT.

So it all comes down to each one of us. What if the world needs your light so they’ll be drawn to the truest ever Light-Giver? What if Jesus’ words to them are really the words of God to you – to all of us?

That might just be enough to inspire us to live differently today. So walk through the gates of The Crumbling and let people see you today.

Blind them.