Let Your Light Shine!

"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hid. Nor do men light a lamp and put it under a bushel, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven. [Matt. 5:14-16]

To shed a little light (pun intended) on this consider the following analogy shared by Stacey Hall and Jan Brogniez in their book Attracting Perfect Customers:

"Imagine a lighthouse standing strong and tall on the rocky shore of a beautiful harbor. The water is calm, the sky is blue, and many boats are out to sea. But off in the distance a storm cloud is forming. It approaches the shore very quickly. The sky is getting darker, the waves are getting rougher, and many of the boats are being tossed about on the water. As the rain and the wind pick up strength, the power of the beam of light emanating from the lighthouse increases. The darker the skies become, the brighter the light shines to provide safety and security in the midst of the storm.
Now imagine that the lighthouse gets upset because some of the boats are choosing to follow their own path. The lighthouse feels that it is not successful if its light is not guiding all of the boats in the sea. It sprouts arms and legs and runs up and down the beach acting like a search light, doing its best to catch the attention of all the boat captains, attempting to encourage more of them to depend on the light.
What do you think would be the result?
Most likely, the boats whose captains were depending on a steady stream of light to guide them safely around potential dangers would be damaged or destroyed in the chaos and confusion. Other boats might be steered dangerously close to shore so those on board could get a better look at the spectacle. Still others would be perfectly content to stay where they are – out at sea, relying on their own navigational equipment. The result: very few boats would be served well or at all by the lighthouse.
The lesson to be learned is that lighthouses don’t wade into the water looking for boats to serve. In that same way, your responsibility is to stand still and keep shinning your own distinctive light, to keep polishing the lens to assure that your light has the brilliance to break through the darkness and attract the attention of only perfect customers."

“How distinctive can I possibly be?” you might be asking yourself. Or, “on what rocky point am I supposed to be standing and what kind of light should I be sending?” The answers are: stand where God has placed you and send out the light He’s given to you. Let me put it this way: You’ve been designed by God to be a laser beam – not a defused glow; but to be a sharp spear – not a rounded, blunt instrument.
The sharpness of your “point” (your individual uniqueness) just from the perspective of physiological makeup is the result of fifteen thousand communication lines for each of the one hundred billion neurons within your brain. There will never be another person with the same brain structure that you have. And, that’s just the beginning of your uniqueness. Over time, some of those connections get stronger and others weaker according various generic features, experiences, related natural talents, etc. Thus, some of your connections become super fast T1 lines (using Internet terminology) while others become more like two cans with a string stretched between them. Some will work and convey information really well for you and others will become virtually useless. How those “lines” develop in each person determines his or her personality, temperament, coordination, the manner in which he or she is best able to transmit, receive and understand information, etc., etc., etc. From that basic human design and plan by God, every person emerges as a distinctively talented individual blessed and/or cursed to react to the world in his/her own enduringly unique way. And…it is from this uniqueness that our initial light is intended to shine. If we attempt only to duplicate the mechanics practiced by another or someone in your particular field rather than to identify and use the one-of-a-kind composite created for us by God, we are essentially turning our backs on who we were intended by God to be. It is, in fact, our uniqueness that determines our ability to serve as a lighthouse to communicate with people and guide them to safety.

The Bible puts it this way: Whatever gifts we’ve been given by God should be developed and used by us. (Romans 12:6-8; 1 Peter 4:10-11) You are the light of the world…Put [that light] on the lamp stand, and it gives light to all who are in the house [all who are in the harbor of where your beam can reach]. (Matthew 5:14-16) Your distinctiveness, therefore, is based on God’s specific design of you (even to the number of hairs on your head – Matthew 10:30) and that the very special purpose and good works for you to provide come from living the life He intends for you. Seek to find that design; receive the Light of Christ and become not just distinctive in your practice or business, or in your physiological neuron connections, but as a son, daughter and servant of God.

Let your light shine today wherever you find yourself planted by God. Your job is to be a lens to allow God's light to shine through you. Don't worry about catching other people's attention. Just do the good works and let God through His Holy Spirit use you to be a light unto the nations.