Permission To ShineSample

Taking It For Granted

It has happened to me many times. I go online and I see someone selling a product or making money from something that I already know how to do. And every time I see it, the thought comes back to my brain, “Now, why didn’t you do that?”

The problem is overthinking. Analysis paralysis. You know what I’m talking about. You’re waiting for a groundbreaking idea to appear in your mind and you overlook what you already know how to do. You take your skills, your light, for granted because they come easily and you don’t feel like anyone is remotely interested in having you teach them how you did it...until...you see someone else doing it.

That’s the thing with light...it just shines! We don’t have to do much to cause it to shine. In fact, it takes more work to put a lampshade over it than it does to allow it to shine. And because we’re built to shine, we figure it couldn’t be that easy.

But, the Bible doesn’t tell us to discover our spark, work hard to kindle it, build it up, blow air on it and add wood chips.

It says we are the light and we are to let it shine. We are already light and we simply need to shine. But because it doesn’t take work to shine, because it feels like shining is too easy, somehow, it feels like we didn’t earn it.

That’s the error. The work isn’t in shining. The work is in equipping ourselves to deal with the bricks others throw...bricks intended to dim or damage the light. We’re going to get hit with the bricks sometimes and if we haven’t done the work, the bricks hurt us and throw us off track. So, the hard work is in navigating the storm. But even in the storm, our light still shines. And we can count on God’s light within us to help navigate the storm.

You don’t have to work for the Light. You already have it. Just let it shine!