11-7-21 Moonlight

Quote: “Everyone wants to be the sun to lighten up someone’s life, but why not be the moon, to shine in someone’s darkest hour?”

I took the spiritual gifts test.  In fact, I encourage you to do it (you’ll see why that’s funny in just a few seconds). www.spiritualgiftstest.com is the free site to take the test.  It tells what your strengths are when it comes to your faith.  Two of my top gifts are teaching and encouraging.  These are not gifts I have to work hard at doing.  They come naturally and easily.  I sometimes do them without even knowing it.  I’m not bragging – they’re just simply gifts from God for me to use to bring joy to the world.  One thing that motivates me is seeing people feel motivated after I’ve had the chance to encourage them with a quick text or conversation – to be that sunny cheerful person that turns that frown upside down.

But it’s a whole other thing to meet someone in their deep, darkest place.

That place where your cheerful words or smiles do nothing.  They are in the pit.  The valley.  It is hard for them just to cope.  I’ve met people in these places and it is hard.  Seeing them grieve after a marriage is over.  Going alongside them as they process a death.  Watching them grapple with homelessness and poverty and food scarcity.  Hearing them talk about their horrible experience with religion and religious people.  Seeing them mourn over a medical diagnosis.  Watching fear and anger take over their life.

It is hard to meet people in these places.  Heck, we’ve got our own problems to deal with!  Our pain is barely all we can handle sometimes.  How in the world could I possibly take on someone else’s burdens when my own are so heavy?

But isn’t that why we’re here?  To serve others?  It can’t possibly be just about offering a smile here and there.  It’s got to be bigger than that.  How boring would life be if we only focused on our happiness or our family’s success.  We should want to leave the message with the world that the way to have the most impact on the world is to love the world.  To love people right where they are at.  Being in the middle of their mess with them.

We’ve got to clean this world up!  It’s a hot mess.  Sure it seems hopeless and overwhelming at times but even a small dent is better than no dent at all, right?  We’ve got to take that risk.

I love what Jesus says about this.  He says in Mark 2:17, “Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous but the sinners.'”  Churches are supposed to be hospitals.  We aren’t supposed to get our lives right and then go to church.  We’re supposed to do life with Christians to help us get our lives right, helping each other along the way and doing it together.  

If Jesus feels this way, shouldn’t we?  Healthy people don’t need help.  They’ve got it all figured out.  They don’t need more than a smile or a compliment.  A little pick-me-up word of encouragement does immediate wonders.  A little bit of sunshine is all they need.  But what if we instead focus our attention more on those in our life that aren’t reaching out, those that are mentally and spiritually and emotionally and physically sick but are too scared to ask for help.  We need to ask God for x-ray vision to see past the facades and highlight reels and faking fine.  Then we can meet them in the mud and direct them to the only One who can pull them out.

Be on the lookout for those in your life that might need a little moonlight.