by Brandon Jubar

This Little Light of Mine

My two sons, Kaleb (5, next week) and Tyler (2-and-a-half), are both music fanatics. Their most recent obsession is a Veggie Tales CD that has a bunch of Sunday School Songs on it. Bob Tomato, Larry Cucumber and the gang crankin' out renditions of "Joshua Fought the Battle of Jericho", "The B-I-B-L-E", and "He's Got the Whole World in His Hands", among others.

As we were driving around this past weekend, loud little voices from the back seat were singing, "Hide it under a bushel? No! I'm gonna let it shine." It really got me thinking about last week's column, "The Comfort Zone." 

Judging by the number of comments I received, that column really struck a chord with many of our readers. Most of the comments centered on how difficult it can be to share our religious beliefs with people outside of our faith community.

Many people are concerned with what others will think... but they are also ashamed of those feelings. When I analyze my own actions in certain situations, I'm sure that at some level I, too, am worried about being perceived as a whacko or a fanatic. Yet perhaps that is not all bad.

Have you ever met a stereotypical "Bible-thumper"? When I used to hang-out downtown we'd get them all the time. They were all fire-and-brimstone, wrath-of-God, Holy Rollers who claimed that we were all going to burn in hell if we did not believe what they believed. They wouldn't have a conversation with us; they'd simply quote scripture and condemn us.

To my knowledge, these Bible-thumpers didn't help bring anyone closer to Jesus. In fact, just the opposite occurred. Their overbearing fanaticism pushed many people further away from Christianity, and they ended up solidifying many already negative opinions.

Is that "letting your light shine"? I'd have to say, "no". Unless you equate your "light" to the blinding glare of an oncoming train! The point is, being perceived as whacko or a fanatic can be detrimental to evangelization.

Yet even if you're not obnoxious about it, witnessing to others is not always appropriate. Take the workplace, for instance. If you start sharing your faith with your coworkers on company time, you could legitimately get in trouble with your boss. You could also get in trouble for harassment.

But that doesn't mean you need to hide your faith! One of the wonderful things about the teachings of Christ is that they are not just applicable under certain situations. Our Christian beliefs and values are rules for living our lives. They are relevant to every situation.

I truly believe that the first step in letting our light shine is to be Christ-like in all that we do, especially at work. Don't gossip at the water cooler. Don't trash-talk the boss over morning coffee with a coworker. Don't sit back while things go undone, secure in the belief that it's "not my job".

Christian living is not something we do on Sundays alone. It is a 24x7x365 undertaking, and no one ever said it would be easy.

So here's your challenge:
That little light of yours? Let it shine, let it shine, let it shine...

Peace,
~Brandon

Sound off! Tell me what you think!
bjubar@ParishWebmaster.com

Copyright 2002 by Brandon Jubar
This article has been provided by ParishWebmaster.com