The Shadow Proves The Sunshine

There's a song by Switchfoot that I was listening to called The Shadow Proves The Sunshine where Jon Foreman sings about how if you can see a shadow, you know there must be a sun shining. You don't have to look at the sun to believe it's there.

Last night one of the girls that has been in my youth group for years, but had left for a gap year in Jeffrey's Bay, came back to church for a visit and started relating life to a video game with me. It was a fascinating conversation about how, in the game, you have to build yourself up to a level 10 warrior before you begin to fight the level 10 enemies. She was telling me how we should be sharpening our weaponry in order to be more effective warriors for Christ, however, what I walked away from that chat thinking was, if I'm facing what I feel is a level 16 challenge, then that must mean that God thinks of me as a level 16 warrior.

Even if I don't.

So when I'm faced with these challenges that seem so insurmountable and I can't see how I'm going to overcome them, it's because I'm too busy falling back in my walk with God to a level that I've grown out of, instead of advancing forward, taking ground, and becoming the person that He knows I can be.

This morning I read Matthew 12:33-37, where Jesus is telling the Pharisees how a good tree must produce good fruit, and a bad tree must produce bad fruit, because out of the good or bad of your heart comes good or bad things. I am claiming, with my life plans and with my words, that I am representing God. I am representing good. I am speaking good, and attempting to do good. However, if I'm spending all my energy and focus on what I'm doing, or saying, and none of my energy on who I am and what's in my heart, then when idle times come...the hidden me will be exposed, and my true identity revealed.

I may carry the flag of God through my life and my words, but you may too. So let us, together, make sure that what we're doing is not out of duty, but out of an overflow of identity. When we see one of our brothers or sisters facing a level 20 challenge with their faith still at level 15, let us remind them who they are beneath their fears, and stir up their faith to the next level. Let us be Who we represent, and not attempt to represent only who we want to be.

Let our shadows prove the Son is shining.