“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” (Matthew 5:16).

I was given an idea about shining our light but remembered an article from 2021 that I wanted to share again.  I’ll share the other idea next week.

Let’s say you’re in the middle of a sports field somewhere and its night. Depending on where you are, there may be few or no people nearby. So, while you’re standing there on the field, you light a candle, a flashlight or the light on your phone. Not many people will notice your light. There may be someone walking on the track or a car driving by but what if one person, two or three see your light and come onto the field and ask what you’re doing. You say you’re just trying to shine your light to glorify God. And they ask, “Can I join you?” Then they light their light. Can you see it? What if they call their family and friends to come out to join in this group of lights? In a little while, there are many more people on the field and the lights are shining brighter. After a while, the whole field is full of people shining their lights. The brightness of the lights in the dark is now extending to the surrounding area and people are coming to see what’s going on. What began with your one little light is now a gigantic gathering of people who are shining. Airplanes flying overhead can look down and see the light. As it grows and develops, maybe even satellites in space can take a picture of the phenomenon. It will be on local, regional and maybe national news. Wow, can you visualize it? It all began with your one little light that you let shine in the darkness. Your light. Our light.

Sometimes we think we can’t make much of a difference in the world. But each of us, whether we know it or not, have a “circle of influence”, people who look at us and for us to shine. And even people outside our circle may see us shining in our circle and want to come investigate. Be kind to the person at the store checkout, put your cart back and go get one someone has left in the parking lot, pay for someone’s food behind you in the drive through, offer to pray with someone who shares that they’re having a hard time, smile and say hello to strangers in public, let someone in front of you in a line, etc. SHINE! You can make a difference. More on shining next week.