No Darkness

No Darkness

You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden.

Matthew 5:14

MISSIONARIES FASCINATE ME. These Christians are so passionate about God that they’ll move across the world to a place they’ve never been and where they can’t speak the language, all to help people in that place get to know God and get close to him. And they do this at a huge personal cost. In fact, it can cost them their lives.

Back in the early twentieth century, there was a group of missionaries known as “one-way missionaries” because they packed all their earthly belongings into coffins and purchased one-way tickets when they departed for the mission field. They knew they would never return home. Best-case scenario was that they’d be accepted and be able to live with the people there and help people there get close to God. But sometimes it didn’t go so well, and they would contract a deadly disease or even be killed upon arrival.

The story is told of one such missionary named Peter Milnewho who felt called to a tribe of cannibals in the New Hebrides. He lived among the tribe for fifty-five years, until his death. A sign under his picture in the church he founded reads, “When he came there was no light. When he left there was no darkness.”

Salt and Light

I am a fan of missionaries. I’m a bigger fan of salt. You might say I have a salt problem. I might say salt is glorious and one of God’s best gifts.^a You might say, “If you love salt so much, why don’t you marry it?” I might say that I checked, and it’s not legal in any state I’ve lived in.

As a lover of sodium chloride, it makes me very happy that Jesus spoke about salt.^b

You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot.

You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.^c

Salt needs to have contact with food to add flavor.

Light shines brightest in the darkness.

To play our part, we must have contact with people who are far from God. We must get out of our safe places so we can shine light in the darkness.

Light in Darkness

My wife, Jen, is completing her master’s degree in counseling. After twelve years of staying home to raise our kids, she went back to school to get equipped to help hurting people.

She recently started her first internship. She’s working at a secular counseling agency. She was criticized by some fellow students from the Christian university she’s attending. They called her decision dumb, a waste. Why wouldn’t she work at a Christian counseling center? She could counsel Christians. In a secular counseling center she couldn’t talk about God unless the client brought God up first and wanted him included in their counseling.

Guess what? She’s been working there for half a year, and just about every client brings up God, and when she asks, they do want to include God in their counseling. They’re almost all non-Christians, but they’re hungry, they’re hurting, and they’re open to any help they can get. So Jen gets to tell them about God’s love and how he can be their refuge.

You know what I call that?

Being light in the darkness.

We Make Choices

We make choices every day that determine whether we’ll function in the salt-and-light role Jesus has for us, or if we’ll refuse him. To be salt and light, we must live lives that are distinct from those without Christ, and we must live our lives with those who are without Christ. So . . .

Will you join in the gossip by the coffeepot at work, or will you graciously walk away?

When there’s someone left out, will you stay with the popular crowd, or will you show Jesus’ compassion to the one who’s been forgotten?

Will you join in the lustful talk about the receptionist who wears short skirts, or will you take the high road and show some dignity?

And whom will you invite over for dinner? The person from church whom you have God in common with, or the person who doesn’t go to church and needs God?

Will you always get together with the moms from church, or will you choose to start a new meet-up group with moms you don’t know?

Will you join in the church softball league, or get on a team in the community league?

Will you keep going to lunch with the same coworker, or will you break out of your comfort zone and start building a relationship with someone new?

Will you pay at the pump or take the extra couple of minutes to go inside to pay so you can start developing a relationship with the guy who works the cash register?

Will you be salt? Will you be light?

Maybe someday it could be said that there used to be no light, but now, because of you, there is no darkness.

Now What?

• Read Matthew 5:3-15.
• Where is a place you could infiltrate with the love and goodness of God, so that you can shine his light in the darkness?
• Pray that God’s light would emanate from you everywhere you go. Ask him to show you how you can shine his light at your job, school, or neighborhood.