Adjusting to Shine Brightly

    There is an old saying that reminds us that we won’t make our candle any brighter by blowing out someone else’s candle. Another way this truth has been explained is that no one has ever become skinny by calling someone else fat. If we are honest, this is when we try to make ourselves look good without doing the hard work of adjusting our lives to be better. Our goal is to magnify someone else’s flaws so that we will look good. It most often ends with us selling ourselves as the solution and becoming the savior of the situation. 

    Through the years, I have watched people use this method as a way to seize power. They usually paint someone as the villain or incompetent. Then they point to themselves as the one who can save the day. Paul has something to say about this type of action. He warns us about what he calls unwholesome talk in Ephesians 4:29. Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen. If I understand unwholesome talk correctly, it is talk that we might use to put someone else’s candle out so that we will look good. Paul says to adjust our talk to build others up. If you have been a victim of someone trying to put out your candle, you know how hard it is not to respond with your own candle-extinguishing words. That should not be the way a Christ-follower responds.

    
In our super competitive world, it is easy to slip into this type of unwholesome talk. As a Christ follower, I must find a way to shine bright and help others shine brightly for our Lord. Paul tells us how to shine for our king in Philippians 2:14-15.  Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people.  If we shine brightly and others shine brightly, we will show more people the way to Jesus. That is what God calls us to do.