Shine like Stars

If you could be anyone in the world, even if it was just for the day who would it be?  This question came to my attention in the midst of my study this week, we are all obsessed with being some one else so being the serious guy I am I answered this question.  I would want to be a Rock Star more specifically an Indie Rock Star like Ben Gibbard, I'd love to know what it's like to write music and perform in front of thousands and see your video's on MTV and to most importantly have a stage in which I can influence the World.  As I was studying I began to wonder is this really a far fetched idea?  Maybe so or maybe God put this in my head to wrestle with?

I was studying Philippians 2 for my message this week, in that chapter it talks about Shining like Stars and it caught my attention real quick.  What does it look like to shine like stars and what does God mean when he says that we shine like stars?  I understand that he wants us to live differently from the world and to be an influence but maybe that means more than even we can imagine?

This brought me to my senior year of High School, during that year Switchfoot had just released a new single entitled "Stars"  Now listen to this lyric that I resonated with this week.  "When I look at the stars, I see someone else."  You see there is this idea that we walk around everyday doing the mundane and not really loving what it is that we do or who we are as humans, but nevertheless when we look at the stars we see someone else.  Maybe this someone else is the absolute best version of our real selves, that person who really can move mountains, it's that person who truly best resembles our heavenly father.  

You see I believe that Shining like stars looks like this, it's when a Rock Star visits Etheopia and sees a world in poverty and AIDS and says I must do something about this, you see he looked at the Stars and he saw someone else and it changed his life forever.  It's when a Woman learns about Sex trade in Southeast Asia and decides to build a place of refuge and restoration for these girls, she looked at the Stars.  It's when a man who invented the internet saw a world that had been abused environmentally and decided that something had to change, he looked at the Stars.  It's when a man watches a disaster on the Nightly news and notices that the Church isn't there and decides that something must be done so he forms an organization like IDES, he looked at the Stars.  

You see God wants us to change the world, he wants us to look at the Stars and see someone else.  The very Someone he originally intended for you and I to be.

So may you look at the Stars and see someone else, and may you begin to live a life that is different because you truly have become that someone else.

Grace and Peace be with,

Clayton Wheeler.