He does not need to transplant us into a different field, but right where we are, with just the circumstances that surround us, he makes his sun to shine and his dew to fall upon us, and transforms the very things that were before our greatest hindrances into the chiefest and most blessed means of our growth. No difficulties in your case can baffle him. No dwarfing of your growth in years that are past, no apparent dryness of your inward springs of life, no crookedness or deformity in any of your past development, can in the least mar the perfect work that he will accomplish, if you will only put yourselves absolutely into his hands and let him have his own way with you.
~Hannah Whithall Smith (1832-1911)
Therefore, my dear friends, as you have always obeyed–not only in my presence, but now much more in my absence–continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling, for it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. Do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe as you hold out the word of life–in order that I may boast on the day of Christ that I did not run or labor for nothing. But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you. So you too should be glad and rejoice with me.
~ paul, The Least of the Apostles, in Philippians 2
Oh beloved, it is true. We can hide the Light which is now shining in us and through us. We forget the truth of His work in our lives, and we spin up our own efforts and try to begin accomplishing growth and work and results on our own. And it seems in the spinning, that we kick up enough of the dust of our flesh to occlude His illumination into our spirit, and the outpouring of His light from within us, onto others.
We do indeed, in moments like these, simply forget that obedience (in this case) is simple belief in Him. And belief in Him is coming to rest on the bedrock of His goodness and work for us. And further, in coming to a rest on this kind of truth we begin to fear the only thing worth fearing. We begin to fear the only Power able to change a man’s heart from stone to flesh. This fear is well founded. For no other force in the universe can change a man from a hell-bound wretch into His own spotless and brightly-shining bride.
However, the wonderful thing about the fear of the L_RD is the cleansing it brings. For it cleanses us from the fear of anything else. And in coming to a rest, and losing the fear that dowses the flame of our Love for Him and our Love for others – we begin to burn with His Light. And this Light is the Light of the world, and the very Light of creation which had ever shown forth before the simple shadow-like waves of electromagnetic light burst forth at His command.
And even as we shine forth with His Light, there is another obstacle to the path of the beam. The people we reach with the Word are often as spun up as we were in the past. Their lives are a whirling mass of pain and death and failure and disbelief. So, again as we shine, people will sometimes squint or twist away or try to deflect the Light passing through us. And this is simply a sad truth: Most will hear the gospel, and walk away.
Can we see it though? Some will not turn away! Some will, in a lull in their own storm (or even in the eye of the worst hurricane in their life), catch a glimpse of the Light and Life within us. And in catching that glimpse, they will be attracted for the first time to a Source they simply know is the only Power who can bring them through the destruction battering their existence.
So beloved, may this fool of a preacher seem even a bit more foolish? SHINE. Stop and trust and obey and believe and rest long enough to let the very Light of creation shine through you – that you might serve as beacon to those who are perishing in the storms of their own life.
Shine.
