When You Shine

Dear lovely people,

 

I read from Luke 8:16 (NIV) "No one lights a lamp and hides it in a clay jar or puts it under a bed. Instead, they put it on a stand, so that those who come in can see the light.”

If you read the quotation carefully, you will notice it does not talk of anyone stationed there to inform “those who come in” that the lamp is shining. When a lamp is shining, everybody sees it without being told. Imagine you are lost in the wild, it gets dark while you are struggling to find your way home. Then you see a glimpse of light from a distance. What happens? Suddenly that glimpse of light becomes you reference point, you become sort of phototropic and start moving towards the light.

In the same way in your life, you should act and be like a lamp on the lamp stand.  For that to happen, you have to generate light from within and most of the times, it requires that you set aside fear; fear that you are not good enough, not smart enough or not complete enough in order to allow your light to shine naturally. Your dreams, your processes to achieve that dream, your actions, your character, your focus and all that evolve around you and the people you interact with should be fashioned in such a way that teaches lessons; that make people want to learn from you always.

Don’t confuse this with becoming a people-pleaser! That is not what I am talking about. A people-pleaser is a play thing to external forces while a self-illuminated person operates from within. For sure, anybody would like to learn the latest techniques of becoming a successful entrepreneur but trust me, nobody will not want to learn that from people who demand a pound of flesh for every step they take in assisting them.

Just like Thalia, “I think that nothing is impossible when you want to fulfill a dream. A lot of people will tell you that you can't do it, that you don't have what it takes, but if it is in your heart and you feel it, there is nothing that will stop you. It is like the sun - you can't block it: it will shine regardless, if that is what you want.”

A lamp will shine irrespective of whether people like it or not. It will shine no matter the circumstance and even if placed at the bottom of an abyss, it will still give light there. Be a lamp in all you do and the rest of the things will take care of themselves.

“We are told to let our light shine, and if it does, we won't need to tell anybody it does. Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine” says Dwight L. Moody