If you know me or have just seen a picture of me online you would know I am pretty fair-skinned. For me, if I am going to be out in the sun for even an hour and the UV index is 5 or above I need to put on some sunscreen. Most of the time (because of past experiences) I know to put on sunscreen to avoid getting burned; Yet, occasionally, I forget. It is not the days when it is 95 degrees and sunny that are difficult for me to remember to put sunscreen on, but days when it is 70 and breezy but the UV index is high, or when I go snowboarding and the sun is reflecting off the snow. When I forget I will usually hear my wife Lindsey tell me, “Oh, you got some sun today!” Unless the sunburn is really bad she will notice before I do. This scenario reminds me of a couple of important things when it comes to our spiritual lives.

First, it reminded me of my sermon this past week on 1 Peter 2:2-10, specifically in verse 9 where Peter says that they were, “called out of the darkness into his marvelous light”. This is a reminder for us as followers of Jesus that we are to turn away from the old ways of the world (malice, deceit, envy, slander, hateful speech as Peter mentions in 1 Peter 2:1) and turn towards Christ so that we can be spiritually nourished. While it is Jesus who redeems us, we have to make the choice to continually turn towards him to be transformed through his beautiful light and love.

Secondly, I thought of how I often would get burned when I least expected it. When it comes to Christians I think they often are getting discipled when they least expect it. Now, if you ask the simple theological question “who are you following?” or “Who is discipling you?” we as Christians have been conditioned to quickly respond, “Jesus!” I would contest that while that is partially true I am finding more and more that Christians are being discipled by their favorite news/entertainment channel and favorite partisan pundits more than they are by Jesus. Think about it, Christians will attend a worship service on Sunday mornings where they hear about Jesus, but how many of them will continue to follow/seek Jesus throughout the week? In comparison, I came across a story recently where an adult’s parents needed to get a new tv and wanted to get rid of the old one they had. They noticed that on the old tv the parents owned that they had watched a certain news network so often that their logo/emblem had been burned into the tv screen! So, no matter if they changed the channel or not you would still see a reflection of the news network’s logo on the screen.

A quote that has stuck with me through the years on this topic comes from Pastor/Author Brian Zahnd who said…

“Everyone is being discipled by someone or something, the question is by who and to what are we being discipled? The number-one obstacle to making disciples of Jesus Christ in America today is people are already discipled as Americans.”

Brian Zahnd

I will write more on this topic in the future but for now, I want to encourage us to ask ourselves, “Who or what am I letting disciple me? What am I being discipled too?”

Lastly, as I mentioned at the beginning of this post when I unexpectedly get too much sun my wife will usually notice it first and will say, “You got some sun today!” She can see it in me before I can see it myself. In light of this (no pun intended), I want us to think about what we are reflecting. When people look at our lives what do they see? Do they see us reflecting the marvelous light of God or something else?

Now, go into the world but this time don’t put on your “son” block (pun intended that time)!