I can be light

Sunday mornings I stand with self-less abandon, and in true David-Crowder “Undignified” fashion lead the littles in our junior worship time.  Together we shout the fruit of the spirit, we sing, we clap and we dance to tunes both soft and rockin’. 

Little bodies sway and swing untimely to the beat of sound and song making a beautiful camouflage for that one boy that’s too-cool to worship with body and soul (you know the one, the one you whisper prayers or other spiritual mumblings for).

But then, there’s this moment of child like exuberance, when ten fingers and two hands times forty raise, when eyes squeeze tight and small voices lift in proclamation;

 “We are the light of the world, we are a city on a hill.” 

It’s in this moment I am not their worship leader.  I’m not using my gifts to serve, rather I am being served.  I am being shown what true worship, what child-like faith looks like. 

The flood of emotion fills my eyes with salty tears of joy, and doubt, gladness and repentance.  So I pretend to close my eyes in worship, damming up the flood of welling tears.

Do they know?

Is there any way they can possibly understand - that they are?

That we are?

Their little hands raised in worship, their mouth speaking what their mind may only know in part.  But proclaiming truth.  And I am challenged.

Challenged to live as His light in a world of grey discontent; a world that needs and wants and finds all lacking.  

I can be a light of contentment and joy. 

In a world of dark discord; a world that divides, and hates and tears each other to pieces.  

I can be a light of unity and love. 

In a world of ashen purpose; a world that’s lost in self and stuff and driven toward fleeting success.  

I can be a light of hope and meaning. 

In a world of shadowed truth; a world that disguises and analyzes and calls all relative.  

I can be an unchanging light.

These lives with grace covered imperfections shine from the inside out His radiance.  
Shine that an unknowing world may want to know. Shine to reflect His glory.  
Shine not out of our goodness but out of His.  
Shine, cutting through the darkness and grey of this world a beacon of hope, of different.

There is no lack of darkness, but the light within you is greater. 

How will you shine?

How will He shine through you?