I like to listen to podcasts while I drive alone, generally of sermons. The most recent podcast I’ve listened to reminded me that Jesus is the light of the world. And it got me thinking.

If Jesus is the light of the world, and as Christians we live in the light, we are of light—then we have a bit of Jesus inside of us, and that, my friends, is a very powerful thing. If you’re a non-Christian reading this, we’re not perfect (far from it). But Christians (those who have an active relationship with our Lord Jesus Christ) are vessels of Christ, who is Light.

Sometimes we may be the only Christian in the room. In other words, sometimes, we’ll be the only bit of light in a room of darkness.

But this also means that for some people, we will be the only ray of light they’ll encounter for a long while.

We know that what we do as followers of Christ matters because it represents Jesus. We must be vigilant of our conduct because people may not tell you, but they’re watching. Most times when I ask people why they don’t like Christianity, they tell me it’s based on the actions of other “Christians” i.e. people not displaying the godly behaviour they preach so much about. Check out my other post, When Christians Aren’t Very “Christian”.

But have we talked about how we share our faith?

Imagine it’s the middle of the night, and you’ve just woken up. Your eyes are very sensitive to the darkness, and you feel around for your blanket, and as you do so, a flashlight is shone right in your eyes. How would you react? Most likely you’d hide back under the covers.

In a world full of darkness, we must be careful to not shine His Light at people, lest they run away to never return. Our tact is just as important as our message. We must point the light not at the people we talk to, but at the right path. And we must give people time for their eyes to adjust to the light. If we direct our light back to God, I think that we have a better chance of doing just that.

Have you noticed that when your eyes become accustomed to dim light, you find yourself wanting to see more? We realize that there’s more to see, and in order to see, we need more light. Such is the way with Christ, too.

Some Christians evangelize to people they’ve just met—and that’s wonderful, for those ready to receive the word. But when we come on a little too strongly, to someone who doesn’t know us or become accustomed to the light we may be giving off, we shouldn’t be surprised when we get a negative reaction, as if we’ve disrupted someone’s sleep.

Because most likely, we have. But once they wake up, they’ll want their own flashlight too.