Let Your Light Shine

I wrote this a while ago (as in years), and just ran across it again today. I figured it would be a nice break from the usual "CAPTAIN ME PLANET" that is normally posted here :). For clarification, this is a true story, many of you from back home may know exactly who I am talking about, as I changed the names. Hope you enjoy it!

LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

California is a land of desolate beauty, where the lonely vegetation desperately cries out for water. The beauty of the mountains, Hollywood, casinos, the night life, the glamorous lights all have magnetism to them. However, it is an empty endurance. The beauty is only surface deep. The unfaithful friends, the teen pregnancies, the horrible reality of it all. There is no hope for the young people of this generation, until they come to the realization that they themselves have the ability to change their future. Until they finally see a light in this fake, dark world.

Stephanie, an 18 year old woman, goes to a public college. Stephanie’s parents are backsliders, so she was not raised in church and had no idea as to what true freedom really is. Her uncle attends a Pentecostal church, however he was dis-fellowshipped from the family and Stephanie was forbidden to talk to them. Stephanie had a social life that held her captive. The parties, the drugs, the alcohol, the sex all around her; all of these chained her down, even though she had little or no part in them they still had an effect on her, and left no room for an escape. There were nights she cried herself to sleep because of the disparity and darkness her life held. She felt she had no way out.

Stephanie attended school out of necessity and the desire to be away from home. One day, in her math class, she noticed two girls who looked different from everyone else. Both had long hair, both wore skirts, and were very modestly dressed. She started sitting closer to them, and one day overheard one telling the other about a church event she had attended and how much fun it was. Stephanie leaned over and started questioning the event and found out the girls’ names, Amanda and Crystal. After that, Stephanie sat right next to the girls and Amanda, who genuinely liked her, kept inviting Stephanie to her church. A friendship between the two was forged. Finally one day near the end of the term, as Amanda was leaving class she handed Stephanie a business card. On the card, was the phrase, “Got hope?” The letters were white with a black background and an invitation to a Youth Explosion service. Stephanie felt something she had not felt before, serenity, and a confidence that she may have found her way out. Stephanie immediately called Amanda, and got directions to her church.

The night of the Youth Explosion service, Amanda nervously paced the foyer an hour before service, waiting for Stephanie to show up. Finally, Stephanie’s car rolled into the parking lot which was beginning to fill up. Stephanie was excited because she learned that her cousins from a neighboring church would be attending this service. Stephanie found a seat by them while Amanda worked her way to the platform to praise sing. Stephanie did not remember much about the service, she told Amanda later that she was ever so anxious for the time that she could go to the altar. That time came soon enough. Stephanie was the first in the altar, she almost ran to it, and after a beautiful filling of the Holy Ghost, she and Amanda were the last to leave it. After Stephanie was baptized in the wonderful name of Jesus, she could not stop talking about how happy she was. She finally felt she had a reason to be alive, a hope. Amanda warned her that the devil would try to persuade her that nothing had really happened. Unfortunately, as is the way in all newborn Christian’s lives, it happened soon enough. But Amanda assured her that she would be there for her. And to this day still is.

This story is true and so real to me; some of the circumstances and the names were changed to keep the characters identities anonymous. If only other young people in our churches today would look around for more “Stephanie”s and realize that there are people searching desperately, just as the trees cry for water, for hope, for light in this lonely, hopeless, dim world. If a young person would just take the time to stand up and step away from the tree which they have positioned themselves behind, they might see the forest as it really is, full of trees with branches reaching for the light. Matthew 5:16 says, “Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.”

In this world of compromise we should, we MUST, let our lights shine. As God’s coming draws ever closer, this is not the time to selfishly hide the hope and the peace that we have been given. Instead, we should let the world know, that they have the ability to change, and to be given the same hope and serenity that Stephanie received. As always, to God be the glory, now and forever. May the next generation keep the faith, and spread the gospel with surety.