Shining...

For the past several days, I have been learning how to go deeper into the presence and desires of God through a book called Get Lost by Dannah Gresh. One part of this book includes a ten-day challenge, with each day offering a new aspect of getting lost in God and surrendering to His desires and plans for your life. Today I completed the ten days with a challenge to share His proposal with others; to share His love and invite others to become a part of it. One part of this chapter struck me more than any other -

            "Sometimes we should not attempt to bring someone to the cross in forceful conversation but should simply leave behind the fragrance of love. Dietrich Bonhoeffer pointed out, 'Jesus himself did not try to convert the two thieves on the cross; he waited until one of them turned to him.' The famous evangelist D.L. Moody once said, 'Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine.' Today your action point is to consider how well your light is shining. In romantic terms, you get to illuminate God's proposal of marriage to a lost world. He is collecting the Bride of Christ, and you and I get to help. What care should be taken with such a proposal! Is your life overflowing with the joy of being utterly in love with God?"

Especially poignant to me was the quote by Moody. Let me say it for you again - "Lighthouses don't fire cannons to call attention to their shining - they just shine." Or, if you want to hear it in terms of this blog, "Torches don't turn into flamethrowers to alert people to their glow." Or, "Rain doesn't force itself down people's throats and drown them to let them know it's falling." I'm not saying that there isn't a time or place for intense, pointed evangelism. If that's the direction the Holy Spirit leads in a particular situation or conversation, then that's where we should take it. Yet so often I feel like arguing people into the kingdom becomes our default. So often we overlook 1 Corinthians 13 - without love, our words mean nothing. Really, how often are our debates with non-believers motivated by love (rather than a desire to prove ourselves - or even more ridiculously, God - right)? This is part of what drove the philosopher Kierkegaard from the Danish church. He saw the hypocrisy of trying to force people into the kingdom of love with facts and proofs. Rather, he believed that we should forget all of the "reasons" to believe in Christ - especially since, as he points out, we believe in an entirely UNreasonable faith - and instead draw near to God with passion and unwavering, subjective, heart-filled FAITH. Our love for God and trust in Him should be of such great magnitude that others will recognize the difference in us. I am not yet at that stage, but that is my desire - to be so inseparable from God that others cannot look at me without seeing Him. That should be our aim. To love Him so deeply that we cannot help loving the people He cares so much for, and that the power of that love would draw others to Him. To love, period.