Used by permission
I sign up for this job. I am so excited to be part of the show. I
actually get to be part of the big show! I got the job!
I line up with the other chosen. Some of us are handsome and
smart. We are well dressed and well educated. Just the sort you would expect
God to use. There are some others in the line. They are overweight and smelly.
They don’t look too brilliant. Sort of the Walmart crowd. I wonder what work they have been given?
Cleaning the bathrooms at the show? Well, I will have an important part, anyway. I will be a shining star.
The guy at the door passes out flashlights--to everyone. They are
flimsy silver Ever-ready flashlights with two rechargeable C batteries. They
are the flashlights you get for free when you buy the batteries. Everyone gets the same size flashlights and
careful instructions on how to keep them recharged. You know--all the spiritual
disciplines: prayer, Bible Study, fellowship, fasting?
Inside the theater, it looks as if the whole world has gathered.
That is, everyone not yet chosen for the job. And on the stage the show is
going on--already going on, as it has been from the very beginning. The colors
are incredible, the story line is rich, the movement is perfectly orchestrated.
And our job is simply to shine our light, our little flashlight,
on the stage so the whole world can see the wonders of the show.
We turn on our lights. I shine my light on the stage. The people
in the theater clap and make appreciative noises. Woo, this is great. My light
is shining so brightly!
Later some of the better
dressed shine their lights on one another. I shine my light over to see what
they are admiring. Nice suit. Sometimes I get
bored holding my light on the stage. I want to see what the whole world
of the audience is doing. Look at that! Some of the really dumb looking folks
shine their lights all around, up on the ceiling, on the floor. Don’t they know
what they were hired for? Here, I will shine my light on them to reveal to the
stage manager what they are doing wrong. Here comes the stage manager. He will probably promote me to just show the
others what they are doing wrong. I could be really good at that. I could be
the supervisor of a whole division.
No, he says my job is just to keep shining on the stage.
‘Glorifying the Father’ is what he calls it. My job is to let my little light
shine. He says that if I don’t keep shining my light the world cannot see the
glory of the Father. Just as if mine was
the only light. Look at those other lights out there. Somebody else can do
that. “Shine Shine Shine!”, he says.
OK. I will try to keep my light on this task. Look at those
colors, listen to that story. Look at those stupid people. Well, some of them
are shining where they are supposed to--even the Walmart crowd. It does not take a lot of brains to just shine.
After all, we all get the
same size flashlight.
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