What's important to you?

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16, The Message

Look at your life. Can people tell what's important to you? Have you posted about God in your Facebook status? Do you "keep open house" about your faith?

I'm going to talk about bookshelves in this post (because I love books), but this applies to everything--your social network profiles, your blogs, your journals, everything.

Owning romance novels, "get-rich-quick" books, or other non-Bible books isn't bad by itself. My bookshelf reads like this: Girl to Grrrl Manga: How to Draw the Hottest Shoujo Manga, Country Gourmet, The One-Year Chronological Bible, In Search of Excellence, The Starbucks Experience, Succeed with Math, Learn French the BBC way, Pride and Prejudice. God wants us to explore and celebrate the world around us, and we can do that through secular books.

However, when you look at your bookshelf, you will see a reflection of yourself. Take a look at my above list. You can probably tell that I like to draw and cook, enjoy reading the Bible, study business techniques, work on math, learn French, and read Jane Austen books.

Now, let me give you a different list. Say you came to my house and saw that my bookshelf read like this: The Starbucks Experience, The Entrepreneur's Guide to Starting a Successful Business, How to Be a Teenage Millionare, Dave's Way--but there were no Bibles or devotionals that were easy to get to (pretend I had them all packed up in a box somewhere). Well, that says something else about my life, doesn't it? If that scenario were true, you could probably honestly say that my goal in life is financial success--it's what I worship.

You see, it's okay if you reflects your interests, but your life should always be centered around Jesus and reflect Him. I have an entire shelf-level of books dedicated to foreign language dictionaries, because I love to study foreign languages. That's an interest God gave me. Because it's important to me, I keep those books handy--right in my bedroom in a place where I can quickly get to them. However, my life goal isn't to learn the languages perfectly or fluently. That's a good goal, but it's not my #1 life goal.
Right next to my shelf of foreign language books I have a bookshelf I've dedicated to Bibles, devotionals, and Christian books. God is also important to me--much more important than foreign languages--so I make sure that those books that help me grow in my knowledge of Him are also readily available for consultation.

Like I said above, this concept doesn't just apply to bookshelves. The girls I know who shine brightly for Jesus are obvious Christians in every area of their lives. Those who are on Facebook just can't keep Him inside--they're so excited that they have to share Him in their statuses and posts! Those who blog, even just as personal blogs, write about His work in their lives. I know a girl who runs her own business. Almost every time I ask how her business is doing, she replies "It's going really well--God has really been blessing it!" Sometimes she tells me about what God is telling her about the business: things to change, areas to expand to, etc. Every time, though, it's about God.

Let me make one more comment: all of this should come naturally. When I think about how much God loves us, I can't help but want to share it with everyone I know. The girls I mentioned above would say the same thing.

I'm going to close by re-stating the Bible passage I started with. As you read it, ask God if there's any area of your life in which He'd like you to shine brighter or more obviously.

"Here's another way to put it: You're here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world. God is not a secret to be kept. We're going public with this, as public as a city on a hill. If I make you light-bearers, you don't think I'm going to hide you under a bucket, do you? I'm putting you on a light stand. Now that I've put you there on a hilltop, on a light stand—shine! Keep open house; be generous with your lives. By opening up to others, you'll prompt people to open up with God, this generous Father in heaven."

Matthew 5:14-16, The Message