The Dallas Cowboys broke our hearts by losing to the hated New York Giants last night, and it made me think of that passage in Romans (why do I do the things I don’t want to do, and not do the things I want to do?). I would very much like to move on from the Dallas Cowboys, but I’m beginning to suspect I simply can’t, or won’t. What’s the difference between can’t & won’t, anyway, right? Probably nothing, that loss is devastating either way. Let’s move on.

I really want to continue to discuss the homework from Sunday. If we remember the Message translation of several verses in Matthew 5, “You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine!”

He brought us here to be light, put us on a light stand, on a hilltop, to bring out the God-colors of the world. We were never supposed to keep our identity or our faith private, keep God a great big secret, hiding under buckets. But you know what? I think we have been doing just that. Many of the light switches in my home have a small slider that dims the bulbs. I like to do that, because it can feel like I’m being interrogated. (I always think I’m hilarious when I say, either “Tell me what I want to know” or “I’ll never tell you anything,” depending on if I’m the one flipping the switch or not. Absolutely hilarious.) Sometimes, it’s better to have a nice soft glow in the evening. In fact, I think that’s the best thing for our circadian rhythms as we begin to wind down for bed.

However, we are not those light switches. The light inside us is never better as a nice soft glow. We are made to shine like stars. Of course, we might shine in different ways, but there isn’t one of us that doesn’t have it, that isn’t made to light up our surroundings. If we’re at work, shine. At home, school, the grocery store, gym, highway, shine. Always shine.

The next question is, what does shining look like?

Well, honestly, it looks like you.

There have been times where I want to say things, want to laugh out loud, want to give of myself, want to wrap my arms around another, want to cry, sing, dance, whatever… and I don’t because, what will they think? Maybe it’ll be taken wrong, misunderstood. Maybe they’ll get offended or judge me or something. And so I do the equivalent of wearing a bucket. I move that slider down, I dim the most authentic, coolest, most awesome version of me. I hide the man God has “wonderfully made,” the man God is forging, transforming, the man I am and am becoming.

You know, I can get pretty excitable on Sunday mornings. There were many weeks early on, as I was speaking, that a voice in my head started with the shame, trying to convince me that I was embarrassing myself. Tone it down, this is inappropriate in a church, that kind of thing. It was often loud and awfully convincing. This voice was also lying, holding a bucket and dimmer switch out for me.

After the Israelites reclaimed the Ark of the Covenant, when they were bringing it home, king David was dancing before it, through the streets, in front of everyone, and his wife Michal was horrified. She “despised him in her heart” for being so “undignified,” and tore him up when he got home. This was the voice in my head, Michal’s. David responded, “I will celebrate before the Lord. I will become even more undignified than this, and I will be humiliated in my own eyes.”

In other words, this man “after God’s own heart,” was going to shine, no matter what, no matter where, no matter when. In Matthew 5, Jesus gives us that same call. We’re called to live and love out loud, so let’s do that, all the time. (In Dallas Cowboys wins AND losses.) Let’s stop wondering what we’re supposed to look like, or how we should act, and just be exactly what He’s made us to be, and do exactly what He’s made us to do: Shine.