Shine Before All Men

By Tony Nguyen

“The light that shines farthest, shines brightest.” –C.T. Studd

I’ve never heard anyone say, “I grow the most in my comfort zone.” Never. I don’t believe I ever will nor do I believe that myself or anyone should desire to stay in our comfort zone forever. Why? Because it is guaranteed that we will face an opportunity to grow when out of it. It’s like the analogy of a fish out of water; a fish perhaps will never understand that it is wet and in water if it never leaves the water into the open air. Such is the same for us men if we are to never leave our routine circumstances or situations.

A few weeks ago the Lord had really convicted me to step out of my comfort zone and engage with people whom I normally don’t engage with. Through my work, I ended up sitting in on a lecture and the speaker was a transgender pastor. The pastor spoke about faith, gender, the blind hatred and antagonist forces LGBT men/women face, etc. Side note: If you want to know the kind of guy I am, I initially showed up because the hosts were serving chips and guac… Anywho, the point is that I realized I refuse to acknowledge people who I presuppose do not hold the same beliefs that I do. I realized that I am not inclined to give certain people the time of day and listen to their story because I think I’m right and they’re wrong and that means they are beneath me.

Man, am I a jerk.

Earlier that week the Fellows and I went to listen to the testimony of a couple involved in full time outreach ministry. This couple have spent much of their life running with crowds whom I assume most “typical” Christian people don’t hang around with; for them it’s been actors/actresses, artists, LGBT folk, BLM activists, etc. Through their testimony they challenged my co-Fellows and I to put ourselves in those uncomfortable situations. They encouraged us to live like Jesus did, how he dined with tax collectors and fellowshipped with prostitutes—people on the margins. Of course they weren’t encouraging us to ditch our beliefs in Christ and to pick up immoral lifestyles whatever the case may be, but they pointed out to me that if we don’t step out and engage our neighbor, we’re no better than the worst sinner. We’d be no better than the Essenes of Ancient Near East, an ancient group Israelites who thought it better to recede from society and be their own holy hamlet instead of engaging their neighbors and their corrupt brethren in faith.

With all this in mind I’m sure an array of emotions can be evoked, but I encourage you to bring to mind a sense of empathy and humility. This is not a call to drop all that we know of God’s goodness and let ourselves be swayed to and fro by the waves of the culture we live in. Instead, this is a call to let your light shine before men so that they will see your good deeds and glorify your Father who is in Heaven.