Paul Harvey, Jr., reported a story recently about a man who wanted to see if anything was left in the bottom of the gas can in his garage. Without thinking, the man whipped out his cigarette lighter and—you guessed it—flicked the lighter and immediately shined new light on the entire subject! Now he needs a new garage.
When I hear about such stories I have to say to myself, “There but for the grace of God, go I.” It is so easy to go about your business with your brain kicked out of gear, mindlessly attacking your projects with familiar and habitual approaches. But such an “auto pilot” approach to life can prove to be extremely counterproductive, even dangerous, and sometimes quite embarrassing.
When Jesus, in his hillside sermon, proclaimed to his disciples that they were the “light of the world,” they apparently took the characterization in stride without giving much thought to the implications of it. When Christ commissioned them to “go and make disciples of all nations” and to “preach the good news to all creation,” they must have heard only what Jewish ears could hear, for upon Jesus’ departure from this earth they went about their business among the same old familiar folks, carrying on their same habitual Jewish practices.
That’s understandable, but the dependency upon familiarity and habit would not meet the Lord’s objective in the long run. The evangelization of the world simply could not happen through folks attempting to shine the light as they always had in the past. A very large amount of the controversy and trouble of the first century church resulted from this tension over whether or not new Christians would have to operate in a way to salve Jewish consciences and preferences. Those earliest disciples needed some divine help to think about the objective and effectively shine the Lord’s light on the world.
The earliest church was just as human as the church of late is. If it weren’t for God’s grace and mercy, the forgiveness and empowering help of God, we’d mindlessly blow this thing sky high!
The accomplishment of Christ’s commission requires that we
keep our brains in gear, and, more importantly, our minds in step with the
Spirit of God. It was no easier for God to convince Peter to evangelize the
centurion at
Yet the Lord still speaks to us, “You are the light of the world. . . . Let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.” We need constantly to be both thinking and praying as we go about shining his light.