Be the Light of the World, Not the Stench of It

Lift your staff. Use what is in your hand right now. Take the initiative.

It is so simple that we tend to miss it again and again, thinking we need to be pros and perfect to be used by God. As if He would be in need of our talents and resources. He isn’t. He just needs that initiative, that small step of faith. He just needs you to flick that light switch.

Over and over, we place the responsibility for the expansion of God’s kingdom on someone else—the pastor, the evangelist, the church staff, and basically anybody else within a five-mile radius—and simply assume that we are not qualified to participate in the process ourselves.

Gradually, we are turned into disconnected light bulbs, created to shine but having believed the lie that we can’t. And so, we have instead comfortably placed ourselves in the box in the cupboard.

This leaves us frustrated and dissatisfied, and since we are not busy doing what we were created to do, we take the frustration out on our Christian brothers and sisters. We start fighting over small matters, building up barriers between denominations, and feeling threatened by the success of others. We whine for years because somebody stepped on our toes and dug deep into things that no one outside our own little isolated group couldn’t care less about. We stop shining the light, God is left without our initiative, and the world stays dark around us.

Soon our souls start to shrink and our joy disappears.

Instead of shining our lights, working together to build up God’s kingdom in our world, we construct a Christian entertainment culture and life becomes a lookout for the coolest Christian event with the coolest Christian it-guy speaking. Our focus is no longer on finding the lost coin but on distancing ourselves from the world, judging sinners who don’t know any better, spreading conspiracy theories online, and becoming known as a cult of angry, judgmental, isolated Pharisees rather than the lights of the world.

I call this SBS—spiritual bedsore syndrome. Bedsores are something I came in painful contact with when I served in the Swedish army and was assigned the medic of my platoon. During my basic training, I had to complete four weeks of practical experience in a hospital. Since I was the new kid on the block, the nurses had me do their least favorite task, which was taking care of the patients with bedsores. These are sores that older people or people not able to move will get on their heels, shoulders, or neck from lying still in their beds, often after major surgeries. Since they are unable to get up and walk around, their skin wears against the bed, and as a result oozing sores appear that smell terrible.

I believe the same thing happens spiritually when Christians do not realize we are called to be lights in the world, when we lose our focus on reaching the lost, and when we never give God initiatives to bless and multiply. We get spiritual bedsores from simply lying down too much and not moving about the way we should. Our introverted Christian lives begin to scab up, and after a while they produce pus and smell bad. So bad, in fact, that even the world outside can smell it.

The good news is that change is coming, and you can be part of it!

I thank God for what I have seen happening across the world in these last few years. There is a new generation of all ages rising up that wants to do everything in their power to erase that negative image of Christians. One that isn’t satisfied by only hearing about Jesus in church on Sunday morning but is determined to do anything in their power to see the light of God spread across their world. And one that is ready to start the process by giving God whatever initiative is needed for His power and love to be launched into their reality.

To learn more about Lundqvist’s latest book, Shine Your Light, visit MyCharismaShop.com