One of our light bulbs went out two months ago and I needed to replace it. I went to Home Depot and surveyed my lighting options. Gone were the days of incandescent bulbs; fluorescent, halogen and LED bulbs had replaced them. I was almost overwhelmed by the number of choices, but settled on an LED bulb that cost me $20. Whenever we move out of our apartment I’m definitely taking that bulb with me.
Lighting has changed and how we shine that light has changed. The same can be said about the lights that we shine for Jesus.
In his Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said:
You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.
From the time of his earthly ministry, Jesus has been calling his followers to shine their light. We are supposed to live lives of love, hope, joy, peace and justice; lives that shine in our dark world and direct people to God.
For those gathered for the Sermon on the Mount, that meant shining a light to the people in their village and the surrounding area. For most people in the first century, they died where they had been born. That trend continued for the next few centuries, with most Christians spending most of their lives in one small area. They still had a light to shine, but not that many people to whom they could shine it.
Advances in transportation definitely made the world a smaller place, as did the urbanization of society. The world has gotten even smaller with the growth of social media.
Just like light bulbs have changed the way we shine our artificial light, social media have drastically changed the way we shine our light for Jesus. Before we could only shine our light to the people we saw face-to-face. Now we have the opportunity to shine our light to people all over the world.
Every post or tweet is an opportunity to shine Jesus’s light and direct people towards our Heavenly Father. With that amazing opportunity, though, comes a tremendous responsibility. Every post or tweet also has the power to bring more darkness into the world and turn people away from God.
The Internet is full of darkness. It is a den of people tearing others down and complaining about the most minor of inconveniences. If we use social media to encourage others and celebrate God’s goodness, then we’ll definitely shine like a city on a hill.
So instead of adding to the darkness and potentially turning people away from God, our digital lives should be filled with as much love, hope, joy, peace and justice as our actual lives. This little light of ours should shine wherever we’re at, in real life or online.
How do you let your little light shine on the Internet?
Great post, Scott. For a long time, one of my favorite ways to let light shine on the Internet was to give charity gifts via Facebook on my friends’ birthdays; FB use to have a store that let you do that. I don’t think they do any more, but it felt like doing something positive beyond the normal “Happy birthday!” on the wall.
I also hope my scribblings at The Sci-Fi Christian are, at the very least, not spreading any darkness, if not exactly flooding the ‘net with light. Your blog is certainly a model of letting cyberlight shine!
PS: LED prices are coming down all the time — plus, LEDs starting to hit the market this year are even more energy efficient than CFLs and, no mercury!