I recently took the above pic of St Kitts from a Lido Deck of the Carnival Sunshine. It reminded me of how President Ronald Reagan used to refer to our beloved United States as ‘a shinning city on a hill.’ The Gipper borrowed that thought from an old puritan preacher by the name of John Winthrop. John and his companions were heading to America on a ship called Arbella in 1630 to establish a new community that would be a positive example to everyone who saw them.  

John had borrowed the words from another preacher, the BEST ONE EVER… Jesus Christ. In a sermon known as the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus compared our lives to a city on a hill. Check it out, 

“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.” Matthew 5:14-16 NLT

The Lord was saying that a life well lived for God is like a lightsaber that beams out brightly to others with a message of peace and hope!

I don’t know know how you view the society you live in but if God’s standards are the true measurement – and they are – then, we live in a dark world! BUT WAIT… before you accuse me of being all gloom and doom, you need to know that I am not. I am one of the most optimistic guys you’ll ever meet. The reality of our present times, though, is that the news are bad, disasters happen, there’s hunger and poverty and diseases threatening humanity, people fight and lie to each other, nations threaten, neighbors disrespect each other, life is not considered sacred anymore, there is no absolute truth and good is in the eye of the beholder (even when you become the victim), we have to deal with broken relationships, broken promises, broken dreams and aspirations…basically we are broken people longing for hope, for something better to come along.

The difference between those of us who have chosen to follow God in heaven through faith in Jesus Christ and those who choose not to is that the Lord has lit us up from the inside. We are like energizer bunnies and God’s Holy Spirit is providing the charge! TA-DAAA!!!

Have you ever found yourself in a very dark place with no light? 

My mind races back to a time when I was a teenager in Puerto Rico. Late one night a group of us ventured deep into an old, big abandoned, dilapidated building of another time. We had heard scary stories of paranormal activity happening in there and went in to investigate…but we were going to do it all in the dark. As we felt our way around we kept moving through doors and passageways until someone said he heard a weird noise. Another person lit up a match and that little flame of light revealed that we were in what seemed like open jail cells. Needless to say, everyone turned on whatever light we had and ran out of there.

The Lord Jesus said that the light we Christians have within can encourage and help someone caught in the scary darkness that this world offers. He sets you and me up wherever we find ourselves everyday – office, among friends and family, in a college campus, etc – so that the light of hope God’s turned on inside us can shine and help someone who needs it.

Take a look again at the pic I took from the Lido Deck, 

Did you notice the moon hanging there in the dark of night? If there was a power outage at St Kitts and all the ground lights went out, the moon would still be shinning. Are you letting some of God’s light in you out?

You say, “Man, I feel like I am as dim as a flashlight with weak batteries.” Ok, then, I challenge you to do something unselfish and Jesus-like for someone today. It will bless his/her life and, like Jesus said, give praise to your Father in heaven. That in turn will motivate you and bless you and refresh you.

Let’s dream a little…can you imagine doing something that results in a thunderous applause from heaven? It’s worth a shot and it makes your life meaningful. That, in a sense, is the way to have fun with your bright light. 

One more thought, did you notice that Jesus didn’t not compare our words to light but our deeds. It’s easy to say this or that but hard to do that or this. People can claim to be all they want but do their actions follow?

Be light! You are that shinning city on a hill others need to see.

Thanks for reading. I’ve stopped writing blogs for a time in order to give writing a second book a chance but I am hopefully back to blogging for a while. Please leave me a note!