Time to Shine

While I have written an introduction to my blog, I would like you all to also have, as I will call it, a mission statement. My purpose here as I have stated is to question what it looks like to live a life like Christ (wow, that was way too much alliteration). Something that has been spinning in my head for the past little while of what we should be doing as Christians and how we should be taking our convictions out into the world has come from a book I just finished reading. The Irresistible Revolution, written by Shane Claiborne really got me to thinking about what it means to live a life like Christ, what it should look like to be a 21st Century Christian so to speak. I am going to steal from that book what I believe is a reflection of how we should live. On page 258 of his book, Claiborne writes (and I am sorry if it is a bit long):

In the early days of our community, Michelle, a founding partner of the Simple Way, and I headed out to get a loaf of bread. We walked underneath the El tracks just a block from our house, a strip notorious for its prostitution and drug trafficking, where the air is thick with tears and struggle. We walked past an alley, and tucked inside was a woman, tattered, cold, and on crutches. She approached me, asking if I wanted her services. Our hearts sank, but we scurried on to get our bread. Then we headed quickly home, nodding at the woman as we passed. When we got home and opened the bread, we noticed the bag had a large gash in the side and the bread had gone bad. We would have to go back, and we both knew what that meant. We would have to walk by that woman again. We walked by the alley and saw her in there crying, shivering. We got our bread, and as we saw her yet again, we could not just pass by. We stopped and told her we cared for her, that she was precious, worth more than a few bucks for tricks on the avenue. We explained that we had a home that was a safe place to get warm and have a snack. So she stumbled onto her crutches and came home with us.
As soon as we entered the house, she started weeping hysterically. Michelle held her as she wept. When she had gained her composure, she said, "You all are Christians, aren't you?" Michelle and I looked at each other, startled. We had said nothing about God or Jesus, and our house doesn't have a cross in the window, a neon "Jesus Saves" sign, or even a little Christian fish on the wall. She said, "I know that you are Christians because you shine. I used to be in love with Jesus like that, and when I was, I shined like diamonds in the sky, like the stars. But it's a cold dark world, and I lost my shine a little while back. I lost my shine on those streets." At that point, we were all weeping. She asked us to pray with her that she might shine again. We did; we prayed that this dark world would not take away our shine.
Days, weeks went by, and we did not see her. One day, there was a knock at the door, and I opened it. On the steps there was a lovely lady with a contagious ear-to-ear smile. We stared at each other. We see a lot of people, so I was going to try to fake recognizing her, but she called my bluff and beat me to it. "Of course you don't recognize me, because I'm shining again. I'm shining." Then I knew. She went on to explain how deeply she had fallen in love with God again. She said she wanted to give us something to thank us for our hospitality but sadly she confessed, "While I was on the streets, I lost everything I owned. Except this." She pulled out a box and apologetically confessed that she smoked a lot and always collected the Marlboro Mile points from the cigarette packs. "So this is all that I have, but I want you to have it." And she handed me a box busting at the seams with hundreds of Marlboro Miles. It's one of the most precious gifts I've ever been given, like receiving the widow's last pennies. And they make good Bible markers. Now whenever I am speaking somewhere and open up the Word, I see a Marlboro Mile (and the elders raise their eyebrows), and I am reminded of all the broken lives that have lost their shine a little while back.

There is so much to be taken from this passage of literature. While our minds may first jump to the obvious parallels to Jesus in the New Testament, that is only part of the reason that I bring this passage up. This woman, this child of God, said something profound about Shane and Michelle. She says, "I know that you are Christians because you shine." That is what we are supposed to do as Christians! We are supposed to shine! In our culture it is so easy to fit into the crowd, and we see people everywhere doing good deeds and bad deeds. We see believers and non-believers alike doing both good and bad. It has become so difficult now-a-days to look straight in front of you and be able to tell if someone is a Christian or not. Many times, the only way people know if we are followers of Christ is when we speak about our faith. We need to shine! We should be able to walk down the streets and people will know because of how we act that we are believers in Jesus Christ.
Secondly, we do see the parallel to Jesus in the New Testament in this two page section of The Irresistible Revolution. What we as Christians need to realize is that Jesus Christ is still with us today. We are supposed to walk and live like He did. What Shane and Michelle did should not be an uncommon act, but it should naturally to us because of our faith and love in and for Jesus. That is what it means to be a Christian! It means to act like Christ. It doesn't mean to live simply and good, trying our best to live without sin. It is much more than that. It is pulling ourselves away from the norm as Jesus did, and live as He did.
In a world where it can be nearly impossible to know who holds what faith convictions, we need to set ourselves apart as God's people. We need to shine like Jesus, we need to fall in love with God again as the woman in the streets did. It is time that we as Christians took a step back and re-evaluated what it looks like to be a Christian, so people can re-evaluate us, and see without a doubt what a Christian really looks like.