I hope you didn’t store away your winter coats too early! Isn’t Austin such an amazing place to live? One week it can be in the 80’s, and then another week we can be under a winter weather advisory. It’s crazy to think that our temperature could drop to the “teens” in the coming days, and we could potentially experience ice and snow in back-to-back months. While all of this is certainly surprising, I think in a strange way it also seems to make a lot of sense. We’ve been experiencing a major storm for nearly a year now, so it almost seems fitting that we’d also have a change in the weather. But regardless of what this winter storm does bring, I think we can all rest assured with some good news: this too shall pass. Eventually, the sun will come out and the ice on the roads will melt away. We won’t have to worry forever about travel hazards, nor will we have to bundle up when we go outside. The sun will simply melt away those problems, and we will get to joyfully press on.
Wouldn’t it be nice if all of our problems could melt away that easily? Unfortunately, we all know life is much more complicated than ice in Texas. The truth is our problems seem to stick around much, much longer. Every day can feel like a battle, as we constantly face conflict in relationships, stress in our finances, obstacles at work, ailments in our health, and rising political unrest. Because of that, the body of Christ groans together (Romans 8:22) and longs for those problems to melt away. And I cannot promise you that they will melt away any time soon, but I can promise you that the Son will indeed shine over them.
Jesus tells us that He is the Light of the world (John 8:12), and as the Light, He consistently shines His goodness, mercy, and grace into dark situations. One day the Light will physically return to this world, and all of our problems will fully melt away at that time (Revelation 21:1-4). But until then, Jesus commands us to shine His light now. Jesus tells us, “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden” (Matthew 5:14). Because Christ is in us, we actually have the power to shine and bring real change into this world. While the problems of this world may not fully melt away yet, we do still have the power to make real progress for the kingdom of God right now.
Each and every one of us are called to be difference makers. As we talked about last weekend, God’s Word instructs us to set aside our own interests and take on the interests of others. So my question for you this week, is “where are you shining?” Is there an area in our church, and even in our city, where you are actively shining the grace of God into dark spaces? This past week I was proud of ABC for shining light into the Austin Police Department. We partnered with their chaplain to provide some much-needed mental health resources for their officers. Many of our teenagers are shining their light in our children’s ministry by now leading our youngest in worship every weekend at Elevate. Our student ministry is about to shine its light through a brand-new event, the ABC Student Conference. This one-day event will be filled with worship, relevant Biblical teaching, and fellowship for students so they can find a place to belong. Matt Gillum and I are in the process of releasing a new podcast channel, where we hope to shine the light of Christ into our city by engaging our culture with God’s Word and applying it to real life issues.
Those are just a few ways ABC is shining, and I’m proud of the many volunteers and faithful witnesses in our church who are truly shining in areas all around us. But the question to ponder today is, “are you shining your light?” It’s easy to hunker down during a storm, but we’re called to rise up and brave our way through it. Have you found a place to use your gifts and expand the Kingdom of God today? The Son wants to shine His light through you this week, so I encourage you to take Paul’s words to heart: “Let us not grow weary of doing good, for in due season we will reap, if we do not give up. So then, as we have opportunity, let us do good to everyone, and especially to those who are of the household of faith” (Galatians 6:9-10).
Shine on,
Jonathan Spencer
www.jonathanspencer.org 