To Shine
The simple, revolutionary, absurd idea that will change the way you think about yourself, and more importantly, those around you.
It is a familiar question for any christian as they begin their journey to adulthood. "What is God's plan for my life?" For many of us it consumed our college years. The constant nagging voice in the back of your head, its insidious whispering creating fertile ground for doubt to fester and blossom.
I, like so many others, went off to college with an immature, barely formed idea of who I was, and what I wanted to do with my life. Almost immediately upon dropping my bags next to my bed, the questioning began.
"What's your major?", "How did you know this was The Call?"
The answer of course, is that most of us don't really know. It is rare for someone to head off to college with a clear, unshakeable understanding of our God ordained destiny, as it were. And there is a very good reason for that.
Modern Christianity has conflated vocation with purpose. The idea that you have one perfect path to take that has been selected for you by God, that you must discover. This of course introduces the problem of positive identification. If I don't choose the correct path, whoa to me.
This deception of discovery creates a situation full of stress, desperation and fear where God had intended joy, wonder and miracle. It was never meant to be this way brothers and sisters.
The truth is more wondrous, absurd and ultimately simple. It is true that God has a plan for each of us. Would you like me to share it with you? Here it is:
We are meant to shine brighter than the stars. To be so filled with the uncreated light of Christ that we burn with an intensity so fierce that darkness cannot stand within its glare.
If you took every star in the night sky, and brought all their light together into one single point, one single moment, it would pale in comparison to how you can shine!
This is the plan for every man, woman and child on this earth. All those who have come before, and all those who have yet to take their first breath of air are inheritors of this plan, this destiny.
Our jobs, our vocations, can honor God and be a source of glorification, but it is not our purpose in life. The person who preaches on Sunday and the person who cleans up afterward are both fully living God's plan for their life if they are beacons of Christ's light. What they do means nothing when revealed in this light.
Of course many people are lucky enough that their vocation and their purpose coincide. To be filled with this wondrous light, and then help kindle it in others. But never despair of finding this not being the case for you.
You have a purpose and it is to shine.
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