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“You are the light of the world… no one lights a lamp and hides it under a bowl.”

Matthew 5:14-16 NLT

While the memories of our Shoreline service, “Shine,” still linger, we want to keep bringing light to the world around us. In this newsletter, we’ll take on the influences that lead us to hide our light: fear, and its cousins—stress, fretting, and worry. At the end, we’ll point toward some resources that will strengthen our courage.

Fear, stress, fretting, and worry are emotions focused on protection or safety— not on hope or opportunities.

  • Fear paralyzes our next step. It convinces us to stay exactly where we are instead of taking the opportunities before us. “Better safe than sorry,” it says, even when where we are isn’t where we’re called to be.
  • Worry steals attention from the present. Our “what if” scenarios about tomorrow will distract us from opportunities today.
  • Stress narrows our focus. Opportunities usually require seeing the big picture of possibilities—having a mindset of “It could happen.”
  • Fretting wears down our decisiveness. We think about things longer and longer, until the opportunity is gone.

It’s not a stretch to say that every single person attending, serving, performing, or speaking at our Shoreline service on July 26th was there because someone, at some point in their life, resisted the temptation to hide their light. That person took an opportunity and initiated a conversation, shared an invitation, or simply introduced themselves to make a new friend. Every choice we make to live this way instead of living in fear builds a God-focused, life-changing, and non-denominational church. It happens one uncovered light at a time.

As Wayne Gretzky, widely considered one of the best hockey players of all time, is quoted as saying: “You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take.”

Fear convinces us that not acting is the safe choice—when actually it’s the only choice with a 0% success rate.

2 Timothy 1:7 NLT

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.

Read, Watch, Listen

Keep shining this week. If fear, stress, or worry have had you keeping your light under a bowl, Deep Spirituality has some resources worth your time:

Until next time!

Stone Eleazer

President of the Board of Directors

Written by

Stone Eleazer

Stone Eleazer is the director of operations at the Bay Area Christian Church, and is an editor for BACC Inspire.

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