Wednesday, July 15, 2009

Humans Being; Light Your Candle - Shine On


I like to claim/admit very few vices in life: Ice Cream, Peanut Butter (both usually late at night), and listening to older rock music, most notably Van Halen. I don't endorse the images or the lifestyle, but like the music. Great guitar runs, and occassionally interesting and telling lyrics.


I was reminded the other day of the words to the 90's tune "Humans Being" (the song played during the dirt road scene in the movie "Twister"). Again, not endorsing all the lyrics, I am left to wonder about Sammy Hagar's upbringing and how religion impacted his life and thinking, often indicating a significant paradox.


The song begins "There is just enough Christ in me to make me feel almost guilty. Is that why God made us bleed; To make us see we're Humans Being?....Shine On, Shine On."


That too often describes how I act, or more notably fail to act. I pull up to the Braums drive in, I walk thru the grocery check out, I talk to my son's basketball coach across town. In each instance, passing the time, talking about mutual interests, but not as often speaking of or looking out for "how is this person's life? Do they know Jesus?" I drive away or walk away, and wonder why I didn't say something more. Is "there just enough Christ in me to make me feel almost guilty?" I hope not.


We had our special annual "Missions Sunday" at church this past week. It was a great day. We talked in Bible class about what some often used words really mean. Evangelism is thought to mean "preaching", but it is really about telling the good news of Jesus. Missions is used to most often mean "someone going somewhere to teach or preach", when the word Mission often means work or purpose (as in "military mission", corporate mission", etc), and the word Witness is used to refer to telling others about your Christian walk and faith. I "witness" about a lot of things, again talking basketball, the weather, etc, but how often do I casually talk to someone about Jesus? It should be so easy. Is "there just enough...to make me feel almost guilty?"


As we moved into our worship this past Sunday, we sang "Go Light Your World". Run to the darkness; take your candle - go light your world". May God help me to be more open and willing to talk with others about our life in Him and need for God. If you know me, feel free to ask how I'm doing with this. If you run across this blog because you searched labels and you too like a good Van Halen tune, I hope the good news of Jesus can begin to bless you through these thoughts.


Light Your Candle; Shine On, Shine On. No guilt necessary.

No comments:

Post a Comment