You Never Know How Bright Your Light Is
14“You are the light of the world-like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. 15No 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. 16In 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)
Today we departed for Germany, where we will remain about a week before returning home to the Divided States of America. My time in beautiful Poland is over and part of me will always remain in that country. Yesterday, my newer roommates wanted to go out to dinner and I was happy to arrange dinner plans.
I can not remember exactly when these three arrived, but they moved into my five man room the day after two NCOs moved out. I remember that I was excited because I thought I was going to only have to share my room with one other soldier the morning the other two moved out. By the time I came to my room after work, every bed was full and I had three new roommates.
These three were much different than any other roommate. They were very friendly and forthcoming. They all worked for the Human Intelligence team and I often got a kick out of them roasting one another over the challenges of their jobs. They are three extremely bright, young men and their future appears even brighter. They restored my faith in the younger generation of military men.
Our dinner was full of sharing stories and good conversations, laughs and insight. But what they said to me caught me by surprise. They all talked about how they looked at me as a father figure. Then the tallest in the group joked that no matter how rough his day was, or how mad he was coming back to the room, he would see me lying on my bed and either reading the Bible or a book and think to himself, “well, what should I do now? I guess I’ll read a book too”, and he would forget about whatever was bothering him.
I write this to show that you never know how bright your light is to others. You never know how your walk with Christ will change someone’s mood, day, or even their life. So let your light shine and be a light unto this dark world. One day you could shine so bright you light up an entire room and not even realize you are doing so.
Common Sense Reborn 