“A leader is someone with the power to project either shadow or light onto some part of the world and onto the lives of the people who dwell there. A leader shapes the ethos in which others must live, an ethos as light-filled as heaven or as shadowy as hell.”- Parker Palmer, Let Your Life Speak
Rich Villodas concludes Chapter 4 of The Narrow Path as he exhorts Christians to maintain their distinctiveness. Therefore, our Christian values must confound the conventional wisdom of society. Rather than mirror it.
So, with that in mind, Rich presents two ways Christians posture themselves unhelpfully in relation to the world.
1. Apart from the world. Most significantly, Jesus expects us to be proximate to places of darkness. Hence, Jesus calls us to shine our light. In addition, during His earthly ministry, Jesus constantly moved closer to the people the religious leaders disdained and avoided.
Thus, God moves into the neighborhood to dwell among us. To dispel the darkness that overshadows us. And our job description — light in a dark world — requires us to do the same.
2. Against the world. While living apart from the world finds its roots in contamination, living against the world finds its roots in condemnation. As a result, any conversation regarding the nature of God, Rich contends, needs to begin with Him being for all. Because, Pastor Villodas asserts, it’s spiritually lazy to denounce what we believe God is against.
Furthermore, such a stance serves as a poor witness for Jesus, who calls us to bring God’s shalom into this world. In conclusion, Rich stresses:
“Jesus’ narrow way doesn’t have space for a life oriented around what it’s against. There’s nothing life-giving about that state of being. He calls us to presence and distinctness. To be in the world but not of it requires a faith that is deeply present in the world but radically different from it.”
Today’s question: Tracking the overall trend of your life as a Christian, do you project either shadow or light? Please share.
Tomorrow’s blog: “Gift of anger: strange but true”