“You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. No one lights a lamp and then puts it under a basket. Instead, a lamp is placed on a stand, where it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your good deeds shine out for all to see, so that everyone will praise your heavenly Father.”
Matthew 5:14-16

Yesterday, my sister got home from school and we were talking about our days before I had to leave for work, and she mentioned how she filled her car up with gas for $2.95 a gallon. For Portland, that’s amazing – gas is around $3.30 everywhere else. That in mind, I headed out to work early because my car was practically empty. I pull up, tell the attendant to fill it up, and he tells me someone’s paying for my gas. I honestly didn’t believe him, but after asking again, he said that it was true – a guy was just randomly filling up people’s cars for them. So this random guy paid for my $43 fill-up, and it blessed me so much! Read the story here. I wrote him a brief note thanking him for his generosity, and then called my sister to tell her I beat her price for gas!

I have no idea whether or not this man is a Christian, but his actions spoke loudly. The times are uncertain right now, and it’s a pretty scary thing to stop and think about the future. Nobody really knows what’s going to happen, if we’ll all be ok, if we’re going to make it. As Christians, our calling is to be a city shining on a hill. As the world darkens and hope becomes more obscure, we need to take advantage of the season we are in and be more generous than ever before.

After I left the gas station, I literally felt like I had breathed a breath of fresh air. That’s how I want to be to the people in my life – a breath of fresh air, a light of hope for a world desperately looking for a reason to not give up. What if the Church were to rise up and do things like what this man did? What if we reached out to a lost, hurting, unstable world? We have the hope of the world – will we reach out our hands and give it away?

Or will we head for the hills and keep that hope and light hoarded all for us and ours within the 4 walls of our churches?

Does merely talking about faith indicate that a person really has it? For instance, you come upon an old friend dressed in rags and half-starved and say, “Good morning, friend! Be clothed in Christ! Be filled with the Holy Spirit!” and walk off without providing so much as a coat or a cup of soup—where does that get you? Isn’t it obvious that God-talk without God-acts is outrageous nonsense?…You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We’re going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don’t think I’m going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I’m putting you on a light stand. Now that I’ve put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you’ll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven.
James 2:15-17; Matthew 5:14-16, The Message