Tehal Dosanjh was walking by a bank late one evening, when he found $16,000 in cash outside the bank’s dropbox. The bank was closed, so Dosanjh picked up the pile of bills. “I was shocked,” he said. “I knew what I had to do the next morning, which was to return it.”
Remarkably, he did just that. The next day, Dosanjh entered the bank lobby, money in hand. It wasn’t his, he said, so he couldn’t keep it. Simple as that.
There are ways to be truthful and honest, and there are ways not to be truthful or honest. Jesus regularly called His followers to simply live the truth that we proclaim. Simple as that.
Jesus challenged us to live in ways that reflect the truth of who God is in the world and the truth of who, by God’s mercy, we who follow Him have been created to be in the world. We “are the salt of the earth” (Matthew 5:13). Jesus does not say we should be the salt of the earth or that we would do well to figure out how to be the salt of the earth. We are the salt of the earth.
Likewise, we “are the light of the world” (Matthew 5:14). God isn’t waiting for us to boost our lights to shine brighter. God has made us to be the people who, by His creation and power, shine His light into His world. This is who we are. We may run from this reality. We may refuse our identity and lose our “flavor” (Matthew 5:13). We may be afraid or disobedient and put our light “under a basket” (Matthew 5:15). Still, we are salt and we are light.
We don’t make ourselves salt or light. We simply say yes and then give God’s salt and light away. Or, we don’t.
NLT 365-day reading plan passage for today: Mark 10:35-52
More:
Read John 8:12-20. Jesus said He is the “Light of the world” (v.12). How does this correspond with our being light? What makes us able to not “walk in darkness”? (v.12).
Next:
Where has God called you to be salt and light? What difference does it make if you know that your part is simply to obey?
