Sharing & Shining

I reconnected with an old friend today and while telling her about my life after college, starting with my first job as a structural engineer, she asked if my plan had been to pursue an engineering career after college. I said, “Not really.” She then asked what my career plan had been, and I responded with a lame, “I never really had a plan.”

Okay, I have a plan now, and the plan is, as much as I can affect it:

1. To not die looking back and wondering if my life counted for anything in the grand scheme of things. ( Think eternal value )

2. To live my life to the fullest. ( Think value now )

So how to accomplish this? How to avoid the one, and maximize the other? I guess I could read books by wise men and women to study what they consider important. I could listen to talks by successful people. I could follow the culture. I could even follow the church culture, with all its activities and good works projects.

I think I tried all that. It graded out at about a C-.

So now maybe I’ll read and study what Jesus considered a high priority. Maybe I’ll listen to what Jesus had to say about finding this fullest of fullness. Do you think following his lead might be a smarter thing to do?

Jesus indicated one of his top priorities was, “For the Son of Man came to seek and to save what was lost.”¹ Okay, if it’s that important to Jesus, it’s going to be that important to me.

And Jesus emphasized that a top priority for us in his grand scheme is, “I will make you fishers of men.”² If Jesus wants this for me, I want this for me.

So my new plan is to follow Jesus, and to seek to play a role in his scheme: to shine his Light into this dimly lit, and dimwitted world, so that others will see he is the Way, the only Way, but also the absolute best Way.

Will this enhance my goal of avoiding the vain and void life, and maximizing the fullest of the fullness? John, Jesus’ best friend seemed to think so when he wrote, “We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us. ⁴ We write this to make our^a]”> joy complete.” 1 John

And Paul seemed to echo his agreement about this path to the fullness of life, when he said, ⁶“I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ.” Philemon 1

“Complete joy. Full of … every good thing.” Yes, I think I want that!

The theme I’m picking up from Jesus et al is that to fully experience the A+ spiritual life, and thus the A+ life in general, I want to be active, proactive and purposeful, in sharing and shining the Light of Jesus’ love and grace. I think this fits his admonition to you and to me, when he said, ¹⁴ “You are the light of the world. ¹⁶ In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven?” Matthew 5

From now on I’m going to do what Jesus asked me to do. Will you?

NOTE: This is the first in a series on Evangelism: Sharing the Good News

Luke 19:10 2. Matthew 4:19 bold added