When I play pick-up basketball on Thursday nights, I regularly get assigned one of the toughest men to guard. He is taller, has a nice jump shot, rebounds relentlessly and runs faster than his broken-down legs seem to be able. But he is a joy to play against. He is incredibly nice, always good-humored, and never has coarse or crude jokes or language. We genuinely enjoy beating each other up every week.

When you are in Christ, you have a light of the Holy Spirit within you. Light dispels, or breaks, darkness. The darkest of nights can be broken by a lamp, match, or flashlight. In the early verses of His Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5, Jesus called His devoted followers the light of the world. He instructed those faithful followers not to hide the lights but to put them out for all to see to help dispel the darkness around them.

My friend is a follower of Christ, and he plays with his light on. He hopes that others will see him as different and that it will open a discussion about the Lord. Our lights should always be shining. Jesus also called Himself the light of the world (John 8:12). So, the same light that shined in Christ on earth is within us.

The darkness of this world will try to dim our lights, but if we live as Christ wants, the darkness cannot overcome us. Let it shine!