A bright light in dark times

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Do everything without complaining and arguing, so that no one can criticize you. Live clean, innocent lives as children of God, shining like bright lights in a world full of crooked and perverse people. (Philippians 2:14-15)

As I start a new year, I always try to find a passage of scripture that I might hold onto for the year that will give me direction for what lies ahead. I claim today's passage for this year - looking forward to being a shining light in a world that seems to only get more and more perverse. We will face uncertainty - will Christ be our anchor? We will encounter hardships - will Jesus be our trusted companion as we walk through them? We will find many things we could criticize - will God's will be the choice we make when faced with compromise all around?

Do everything without complaining or arguing - we certainly live in a time when controversy is amplified by media, groups take up issues in protest of this or that, and a sense of unease can kick off violent behavior one never imagined possible. Will we be the ones who bring a sense of 'evenness' into a rocky and turbulent world? When we engage in the selfish attitude of complaining, it can spark arguments. When we find fault with circumstances or people around us, what do we do with that knowledge? If we take that need to God, we are not likely to engage our minds and hearts in an attitude of complaint or argument.

Live clean, innocent lives as children of God. That may seem like an impossibility when we are surrounded by so much that seeks to destroy our innocence, but in Christ Jesus we can renew our minds daily, refocus our thoughts away from what seeks to rob us of our peace and joy, and find ways to make a difference in a world where perversity seems to prevail. We will not agree with every policy, nor will we find every 'new thing' to be what we want, but what we do when faced with these difficult things is based upon our choice to live clean, pure, innocent lives that can shine forth as bright lights. Just sayin!

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