More Shine… So Shine

When I started my career as a student, I was brilliant. I don’t say this to brag, I merely reiterate what all my teachers said about me. My mother who was raising me alone at the time, vowed to foster what she saw in me by investing in my education. For her, that meant that no matter how hard it got, no matter how many extra jobs she needed to work, she would not let me attend a government (public) school. I couldn’t recognise what a sacrifice this was back then, or how big of a stand she was making. She was drawing a line in the sand that has allowed me and my siblings to go farther than she ever dreamed possible. From preschool up to fourth grade, I was privileged to attend some pretty amazing schools. They were not exactly international schools but they certainly had that ‘vibe.’ My classmates were rich kids who were dropped off in big cars while my mother got me to school by cab or carpooling. I was so young back then that I had no way of recognising these nuances around me. I was just happy to learn. I loved school, learning and reading, and took on new information effortlessly. I loved school so much that even when I was sick, I would beg to go and end up sleeping in the sick bay all day because I was too stubborn. As primary school rolled around, I kept that same energy. I was attending a Christian school that used a foreign syllabus and I was progressing further than my classmates, needing additional work and reading assignments just to stay challenged in my classes. I wish I could say this was the trend that marked my entire school journey but the truth is that it wasn’t.

Once I got to fourth grade, despite my excellent progression in school, my mother became concerned that I wasn’t learning what I should have been learning. After seeking wise counsel, she decided to move me to a school that followed the Zambian syllabus. This move was good yet drastic. So drastic that my performance on the entry tests proved my mother’s concerns right and got me pushed back a whole grade. In theory, this wasn’t bad at all because I had progressed to the fourth grade ‘too quickly’ anyway, and third grade was right for my age, yet when it came down to it, it affected my confidence as a student more than I even recognised back then. From the third grade, all the way through to the eighth grade my performance in school left much to be desired. To my new teachers, they were alright, but to my mother, they were subpar. She allowed the first few years to go by without rocking my boat too much, hoping I would adjust and rise to what she knew I could. When this didn’t happen, she worried. I was oblivious and, being oblivious to the dash to my confidence and my mother’s worries, I became content to just be. I faded into the background of my classes and found safety there.

At the beginning of my eighth grade, my mother gave me a book. My love of reading had held up and she knew that books were still the way to my heart. I’m not sure if she knew what the contents of the book were, I have always assumed she knew it was a good read but not much else. I believe God used that book to rock my boat in the best way. One of the many thought-provoking quotes from the book is, “You are what you think.” This line attached to my heart in such an adamant way, that there had to be a change. All through that school year, and the next, I began to apply myself and in every term assessment, I could see evidence of my efforts. Before long, my teachers began to notice that there had been more in me all along. Many of them revved up their engines by continuing to challenge me to give more. I recall many times I resented these challenges because I longed to fade back into the background where I was never their topic of conversation or expectation. Yet, deep within me something had been initiated, never to return to its previous settings. I was back. I wasn’t just getting by anymore, I was excelling and I living in my more.

“Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” ~ Matthew 5:16 (NKJV)

There is more in you than you think. Oh yes, there is! There is crazy light within you that has to be allowed to come out. Guess who the determining factor is… It’s you. You have the power to either release your light or keep it dim. More often than not, we can go through life content with shining, simply doing the minimum thing that may even get us a few ‘oohs’ and ‘ahs.’ What we don’t realise is that the enemy uses these short-lived moments of praise to convince us that some shine is better than no shine at all and that for as long as we have a toe outside our comfort zone, we’re all good. I want to challenge you today and stretch you just a little if you let me. Here goes… Don’t settle for shining when you are called to ‘so shine.’

When you operate in your ‘so shine,’ others will take notice but not of you, they will take notice of God operating in and through you. When you ‘so shine,’ it will be ever so clear that only God could have made it possible for what you have done to be made manifest on the earth. Listen, you are called to produce incredible things in your life, things only you, partnered with God, can produce. This sounds amazing, right? Yes, it is amazing, only there’s a catch. The catch is that the goal is never to have the spotlight on you or even on the produced thing. The goal is for you to use your intangible potential to produce tangible things that point back to God. May I be so bold as to ask you this… What are you doing right now that people may even be applauding, yet you know that there is more shine in you? Have you ever thought about the possibility that you may be waiting on God when He is waiting on you? God is waiting on you to believe in Him and in the light He placed in you, so much so, that you boldly let it ‘so shine.’ If you will indulge me a little further, I would like to share five ways we can practically step out into these ‘so shine’ waters.

Think good stewardship

When we align with God’s will and focus on stewarding His light within us, we will be unavoidable. These days the world is so focused on being seen instead of being obedient. I had a conversation with a friend a few weeks back and I was sharing with her how I am in a season of obedience. After further introspection, I realised that the obedience season is a planting season. It is a season where I step out in faith and plant the seeds God is asking me to plant. I may not even know what crop I am planting but I obey my Father because I believe that His will for me is good regardless of any momentary discomfort the season may be causing. Sarah Jakes Roberts, in an interview to promote her book ‘Woman Evolve,’ said that success is obedience. Success isn’t how much our crop yields, success is the obedient step of planting the crop in the season our Father instructed. What happens in harvest season is none of our business. This can sometimes be a hard pill to swallow but I can tell you, from experience, that there is so much freedom in living with this template. So, let’s focus on the planting, the obedience, the ‘so shining,’ which is our part and let’s leave the harvest, the outcome and the glory up to God.

Build your faith

Faith isn’t something we muster up when we are in trouble or a predicament. Faith must be our lifestyle. The Bible says, several times, that the just shall live by faith. If this is the case, then is it not accurate for us to say that it is unjust (not morally right and fair) to let what God has placed inside of us to go unutilised to bring Him glory? In the parable of the Talents, Jesus painted us a picture of a faithful servant of God versus a wicked (unfaithful) servant of God. I have learned a lot lately that the light within has nothing to do with us. Absolutely nothing. It has nothing to do with our personality, our reputation, our past or whatever excuse we could conjure up. The light within us doesn’t even belong to us. It is all His. Faith will always take us into unfamiliar territory. Faith believes that the God who goes before us is calling us into amazing things. Destiny happens by faith and destiny is for other people and the glory of God. How many people are waiting for you to step out in faith and into your destiny? Abraham followed God by faith and without his obedience, we wouldn’t have been engrafted into the family of God.

“By faith, we understand that the entire universe was formed at God’s command, that what we now see did not come from anything that can be seen.” ~ Hebrews 11:3

I am convinced that everyone ought to have something unseen, and so beyond them, that they are believing God for. When we stretch, it places us in an attractive position for God. If your life doesn’t require you to live by faith every single day then I would submit to you that you have settled for ordinary. God didn’t create you to be ordinary. God doesn’t get any glory by you being ordinary and I believe He is asking you today, “Who gave you permission to be ordinary?”

Cherish Godly inspiration

Create room for God’s inspiration in all things and at all times. Pay attention to what God exposes you to. Many times God will place us around certain things before He can place us in them. He wants us to become familiar with those things so that we can build our faith. So pay attention to your surroundings and what tugs on your heart, things that click with something deep within you. Cherish those things. Talk to the Holy Spirit throughout your day. Tell Him what you see and allow Him to give you His thoughts. Write things down. Don’t assume that you will remember all the little nuggets God gives you. Get into the habit of writing these things down and revisiting them often. Whatever cherishing His inspiration looks like to you, do it! If we don’t cherish God’s divine inspiration, it is miscarried before God can birth it through us.

Lean into the daydream

Faith always produces vision. Many times we hear the word vision and it trips us up. I simply like to think of vision as a daydream. Yes, I work with children so this practice is very familiar. Sadly, as adults, we tend to put these spiritual practices on a shelf in an attempt to ‘do away with childish things.’ Daydreaming is not childish. I believe it is one of the characteristics that Jesus referred to when He challenged His disciples to become as little children. Not childish but childlike. God will often allow our minds to work together with our faith as clarity about our purpose begins to take shape. These can seem like silly daydreams, but no, they are God’s way of showing us what is to come. God made our imagination and He wants to redeem it by using it for His purposes. I challenge you to do a little daydreaming with the Father this week.

Stay relentless in your confidence

How serious do you want to be about this ‘so shine’ thing? Are you serious enough to believe it even when things don’t go according to your plans? Or will you quit when you are not as excited, when you become too busy or when the daydreams don’t come as often? You have to settle it within yourself that no matter the duration, no matter the terrain, you will remain relentless until it comes to pass. Whatever it is. There is grace for this because God knows that in and of ourselves we cannot remain steadfast in His call for us to ‘so shine.’ This is why you have the Word, the Holy Spirit and all the wonderful daydreams He gives you. They are to keep you steadfast, immovable and focused on the prize – His glory.

Throughout this process of ‘so shining,’ you will have to fight to keep yourself focused. The whole point of this is that when it is all said and done, God gets the glory He so deserves. Remember that the things God gives us the grace to do are for His ultimate glory. Our role is to steward well, keep our faith up, and cherish His inspiration as it partners with our imagination to create godly daydreams. Once this is done, we wait. We wait in praise and thanksgiving, relentless in our confidence that He who promised is faithful to complete it. We don’t get to be ordinary because we have been saved and adopted by an extraordinary God who has called us to do extraordinary things.