The Light in You

Jesus spoke to the people again, saying, “I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me won’t walk in darkness but will have the light of life.” (John 8:12, CEB)

Some of you are aware that last weekend I was able to participate in my thirty-year high school class reunion. With that information, you can now do the math to determine my age. 😊 I graduated from a small high school, only 41 of us in my class. I often say in a small school you know most everything about everyone, whether you want to or not. However, as nearly half of my class was able to gather it was a great experience.

I was able to see how far each of us has come. A few of us are already empty nesters, with their children off at college. One had a distinguished Air Force career and is already retired. As we caught up with one another, I was fascinated how many times one person would recount a story and many of us would recall the same story, each of us adding our own details about the experience. However, one of the more significant observations was an encounter with an unlikely classmate.

In his own words, he said to my wife, “Shawn and I didn’t typically hang out in high school…” He then recounted one time when he was suspended for some of his choices. He was right, he and I didn’t have a lot in common in those days. Admittedly, I was pretty strait-laced in high school, and the only time I had encounters with the principal was related to being tardy to first period. But all those years ago, I was aware that my classmate was a pastor’s kid and had grown up in and around the church.

The day of our reunion, he also had the funeral for his mother. As I asked him about her service, he reflected a bit on his life as a pastor’s kid. He talked about his father, the pastor, who also passed away this year. He looked at me and said, “I never guessed you would become a pastor, but I know a little about what that life is like, and I respect you for accepting that call.”

In that moment, I realized that although our paths over these thirty years have been very different, we had ended up on the same path. I think when I hear Jesus’ words in Matthew 7:14, “…But the gate that leads to life is narrow and the road difficult, so few people find it.” I’ve often had an assumption that everyone’s path will look like my path. In high school, I prayerfully longed for my classmates to join the path with me, and probably expressed disappointment when their path looked different than mine.

But as I sat across the table from my classmate, put simply, I saw the light of Christ in him. Similarly, with some of my other high school friends, I also witnessed the light of Christ in them. Our paths to get to this point have all been different, but I have no doubt they are indeed on the Christ path with me.

My challenge for us today is to reflect on this reality I experienced this past weekend. The reality that other people’s path toward Christ probably won’t look like mine. When I start to assume that those around me need to approach their journey with Christ in the exact same way as me, I make God smaller than He really is. God’s prevenient grace is always at work, in everyone’s life. God is actively wooing women and men to God’s self. I need to realize that each person’s path to Christ can and probably will look different.

I want to be more proactive to acknowledge when I see the light of Christ in someone else’s life. Too often our default position is to point out where people are missing the mark, maybe we just need to encourage someone today that we see the light of Christ in them. We can acknowledge they are working to live their life on the narrow path, that the path can be hard, and that journey may look different for them than for us.

Maybe, I’m the only one who needs to hear this today. But my guess is that you may have people in your life whose journey towards Christ does not look like yours. Be encouraged, and prayerful, that in the long game, in God’s timing, that they too may end up on the right path and reflect the light of Christ in their life.

Grace and Peace,

-Shawn