Be The Light

"Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven."

Matthew 5:16
 

"Don’t shine so others can see you. Shine so that through you, others can see Him."

-C.S.Lewis

It is a tricky thing to do in life, to be the light that Christ asks us to be, to always be directing the attention of our righteous actions upward to God. To me, it always seems that if you try your best to be a diligent disciple of Jesus Christ that often people will praise you rather than God. Is that a bad thing to be complimented for our hard work though? Definitely not. There is nothing wrong with being grateful for praise, but we should make a point to always direct the praise upward to God, to whom credit is warranted. That is the most important part of it all, that we give the glory to our Father in Heaven, not to ourselves.

King Benjamin, a wise prophet-king in the Book of Mormon, helps put all of this in perspective while helping us understand why we really have no reason to boast of ourselves. In an address to all the people in the kingdom he gives the following bit of advice as part of his sermon/talk:

"...I say, if ye should serve [God] with all your whole souls yet ye would be unprofitable servants. And behold, all that he requires of you is to keep his commandments; and... if ye do keep his commandments he doth bless you and prosper you. And now, in the first place, he hath created you, and granted unto you your lives, for which ye are indebted unto him. And secondly, he doth require that ye should do as he hath commanded you; for which if ye do, he doth immediately bless you; and therefore he hath paid you. And ye are still indebted unto him, and are, and will be, forever and ever; therefore, of what have ye to boast? And now I ask, can ye say aught of yourselves? I answer you, Nay. Ye cannot say that ye are even as much as the dust of the earth; yet ye were created of the dust of the earth; but behold, it belongeth to him who created you."  

(Mosiah 2:21-25) 

I heard a story about two doctors once that helps to illustrate the principle I am hoping to convey. The two had the same level of education, they were experts in the same field, and both had just successfully completed a very risky surgery. The first man basked in the praise that others gave him constantly making mention to the hours he slaved away in medical school to earn such a valuable skill. The second doctor though, while grateful for the compliments, took no thought to mention himself however; instead, he gave thanks to God for blessing him with the ability to successfully complete the surgery.

In all that we do we should remember where are blessings come from. I believe that one of the profound lessons that a missionary learns is how much we truly rely on the Lord. We cannot successfully preach His gospel without His divine assistance. I have tried, it doesn't work. No matter how eloquent we make our lessons, no matter how meticulously we plan out the day, and no matter how much we know, nothing would get done without His hand in the work. As soon as I start to take the credit for successes that I have experienced the Lord lovingly reminds me with a nice chastening. As soon as I am humble enough to recognize that it has nothing to do with me, He once again reaches out in love to open the flood gates of blessings.

Christ, like with all other virtues, was a stellar example of giving the praise to our Heavenly Father. As Christ points out in the great intercessory prayer, "I have glorified thee on the earth: I have finished the work which thou gavest me to do." (John 17:5) Christ spent his entire mortal ministry engaged in the work of bringing the souls of men to our Heavenly Father. A work for which he received much praise of man. Man will do as they will, but it is our job to always remain humble and only seek to glorify the Father through our word and deed. As we follow the example of Jesus Christ and truly humble ourselves to the reality that we are nothing without our loving Heavenly Father, then we can do all things through him and be the light that Christ has asked us to be.


Pictures:
1: http://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/temples/atlanta-georgia/atlanta-temple-lds-811746-gallery.jpg
2: http://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/gospel-art/book-of-mormon/king-benjamin-addresses-people-39650-gallery.jpg
3: http://media.ldscdn.org/images/media-library/jesus-christ/woman-at-the-well-942631-gallery.jpg