Just Shine

Just shine. 

If we think that a flower’s purpose is to be observed and enjoyed by humanity in some measurable way, then there would be an awful lot of flowers on this planet that bloomed in vain.   A flower in the desert is still beautiful whether someone observes its beauty or not. A flower’s beauty and purpose is not intrinsically linked to human observation. The same holds true for those who reflect the Lord’s beauty. 

As we grow in our understanding of the Lord, one of the more difficult human notions we will wrestle with crucifying, is the notion that if a thing does something, it does so for a discernible purpose. For many of us, “purpose” is a subtle idol. The sheer notion of something not having a humanly discernible purpose causes us to eyeball the ledge over the abyss of nihilism. What is the purpose of unseen beauty in the desert? Our flesh will fight to find an answer to this question, but our spirit must learn to rest in the notion that there may be no humanly discernible answer. 

Sometimes, all you will be called to do is just shine. To shine unobserved, unrecognized, unacknowledged. To bloom and to be beautiful in a place where no one around you is capable of discerning your beauty. And you will struggle with the tempting notion that you have no purpose. That your shining is in vain because it is unobserved. But you must remember that God’s beauty is not determined by observation. His beauty just is. For no particular reason at all…

…so it’s okay for you to just shine. 

(Prov 25:2) It is the glory of God to conceal a matter and the glory of kings to search it out.

(Deut 29:29) The hidden things belong to the LORD our God, but the things revealed belong to us and to our children forever, so that we may follow all the words of this law.

(Rom 11:33) Oh, the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How unsearchable his judgments, and his paths beyond tracing out!

(Is 30:15) This is what the Sovereign LORD, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength, but you would have none of it.