26. Shine on

When something new breaks onto the scene of your life it can be exciting or terrifying. It can be something initially positive or negative. It could be something easily understood or something so drenched in mystery that you start wondering if you're even on the right planet. Transitions can be scary, and sometimes we've got to be ok with no longer being who we were so that we can become who we are supposed to be.

Chapters

• 0:08 Being the Light in Darkness
• 14:07 Embracing and Cultivating Inner Light
• 21:45 Unleashing Your Inner Light

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:08

you greetings, hi and hello everyone. My name is jason petit flair, I'm a speaker, I'm a podcaster and my life's work is centered around allowing the world to meet the true you by helping you think, speak and eventually live better than yesterday. We do this, first, by establishing a good reason why, a strong and powerful motivation to keep going when the going gets rough. Second, we need awareness and acknowledgement of what's holding us back.

Speaker 1: 0:41

And third, we need scalable steps forward as a reliable bridge between who we are right now and who we need to be tomorrow and the day after that, and the day after that and the day after that. This, my friends, is how you go from stuck to thinking as, speaking as and living as the true you the true you A sunbeam, a sunbeam, a sunbeam.

Speaker 1: 1:41

I'll be a sunbeam for him. I remember that song from my childhood. Grown up in Haiti, almost every night, my parents, my mom and dad they would gather us up, us kids, and we would sing something. Both my parents are pastors, ministers, so we always had to have a little mini church, mini mini church before we went to bed and sometimes it would run long, like typical Protestant Christian black church, you know, with my dad sermoning on and trying to land the plane about six different times. Sermoning on and trying to land the plane about six different times. Love you Pops.

Speaker 1: 2:26

But that was one of the songs that it shaped my childhood. It, in a very real and very tangible way, has been a large part of making me who I am today. The song has more lyrics than that, it has different verses, but the chorus is what I sang for you and what I in this particular season of my life, with all the craziness of the world smashing up against my windshield. I have to remember that. You know, god gives me tools as far as windshield wipers to make sure my vision is as clear as possible as I'm driving sure my vision is as clear as possible as I'm driving, and, of course, with heavy rain, it means you don't get to just speed through at 70, 80 miles per hour, like you normally would. I don't know who's driving 80 on the regular, but I drive the speed limit and maybe five, five miles over that for legal reasons. Now, my point being, when you're going through difficult things like that, rushing around, especially making big decisions, as far as, as far as operating a motor vehicle every decision you make is a big decision because it could be potentially a life-ending decision, either yours or someone else's. So imagine that being your life. You're driving through life. Sometimes it's clear, sometimes it's cloudy, sometimes it's rainy, sometimes it's snowy, but when it's raining and it's like this heavy downpour aka there's a lot of difficult or bad things going on in your life it's time to throw on those windshield wipers, and those can be things like therapy, journaling, friend groups, processing with mentors to coach you through these difficult life circumstances. Those are your windshield wipers.

Speaker 1: 4:48

And then, of course, we have our topic for the day your lights. If you're driving through a storm, what do you typically see? Other vehicles do they throw on their hazards, they throw on their headlights, and sometimes you have to use your high beams when it's safe. But ultimately the goal is to both see and be seen. So in those instances it's not time to shrink away and try to create as little a heat signature as possible. No, it's time to make some noise, and by noise I mean show up on the radar and let your light shine, because it's not only a means for you to navigate, it is also a way for others to see where you're going and to be able to follow your example. Your light shining is not just a benefit to you, it is a benefit to those around you as well, and one quick example I'll give you before we get into the three quotes that I've selected for your edification.

Speaker 1: 6:02

Today is just a brief retelling of one of the myriad situations that my dad has had to deal with in the church life, church culture. Don't get it twisted, guys. I'm very much a Christian, a follower of Christ, a believer. However, I am not delusional in thinking that believers or Christians are perfect in any way. We make mistakes too, and we are just as human as anyone else. That may happen to not believe in Christ, that's okay. May happen to not believe in Christ, that's okay. The point of our faith is to acknowledge our humanity and therefore our need for divinity, not our own divinity, but God's divinity in our lives, his guidance, his truth, his love, our lives, his guidance, his, his truth, um, his love, his forgiveness, his grace, those kinds of things. That's a whole different conversation, but I want to focus on today's actual topic and the story focus that I'm, you know, sorry that I'm bringing to your attention.

Speaker 1: 7:15

Essentially, um, there was quite a while back that my dad, pastoring a big church, pretty big sized church, in Haiti, the country where I'm originally from, and at one point one of the leaders in the church, another pastor had decided that he wanted to run his own show. And so, on top of you know, run his own show. And so, on top of you know, lamb blasting my dad and trying to ruin his reputation by starting rumors and taking a bunch of members in the church that were more loyal to him and were totally okay with, you know, sowing dissent and and and and division. He took those people and went and started his own church, his own organization or establishment, all the while rumors flying left and right about, you know, my father and questioning his integrity, questioning the validity of the call on his life, life Now, as a much younger version of myself than current. I mean, I'm still not a fan of it, but I was very, very much vocal about how much I was not a fan of it back then, not really going around and talking about it publicly. But you know, between us siblings my older sister by two years and my younger brother by four we were livid that somebody would go around talking about our dad like that.

Speaker 1: 8:45

But what I can tell you is that he he's my dad's not perfect, but he has been graced by God to literally. That's how I know he's been called to the office that he operates in. It's that the grace that he's operated in, or the grace that he's wielded all these different situations or face these situations with, is supernatural. And what I mean by that Is that he's been able to hear these things. He's been able to still go up on Sunday on on on the platform or the pulpit and preach the word of God. He's still been able to pray over people that one day we're with him and the next day we're gone, still going out of his way to make time to counsel people who whose loyalties were questionable, spending his own money to help people that would take it and not even bat an eye as long as it benefits them, and even even.

Speaker 1: 10:07

Furthermore, I think at one point he was invited to that other church to like either. I think he was invited to either speak or like just show up and like bless it. I I can't remember the specific details, but you know it was it was. It was kind of like a request of sorts, if I remember correctly, for for a show of like truce, kind of in quote unquote, church politics. Now, my dad, he's not a fan of drama and neither are any, neither is any person in our family. We just can't deal with it is is such an egregious waste of time in my opinion. Anyway, I'll have a tirade about that. I'm gonna dedicate a whole episode to how much I hate drama and unnecessary like conflict. I hate it.

Speaker 1: 10:58

Do you know that he actually showed up? He went there to that place led by someone that literally stole pretty much half of his congregation, or a decent size at least of his congregation, and this is someone, by the way, that he has. Well, I don't know how much I can talk about, but he's looked out for this person, let's put it that way From the moment they started their career to the moment they stabbed him in the back and yet he still showed up, prayed over them, blessed them and went about his merry way. How do you do that If you don't believe in something or someone greater than yourself? And there have been people, to my knowledge, that realized and woke up. They realized the error of their ways and came back and apologized to him for what they'd said and what rumors they'd spread and how they'd acted and treated him and judged him unfairly. Some, not all, but some, you know it's something.

Speaker 1: 12:16

Anyway, all of that is to say there's a reason why, as believers, we are commanded to have a certain mindset when it comes to letting our light shine. How do you do that? You do that by turning the other cheek when somebody cheats you, when somebody offends you cheats you, when somebody offends you, you do that by when they steal from you. You see a need in their life and you go the extra mile to provide for it. You know, when God inspires you to do so, you let your light shine. When someone goes out of their way to speak ill of you and ill to you, and you keep it professional. You keep it civil. You let your light shine when people watch you begin to buckle under the pressure of life, and yet you're still able to wake up every day and thank God for waking you up in your right mind, and thank him for your car, and thank him for your bed, and thank him for your job, and thank him for your school, or thank him for your family members or friends that are still alive, or thank him for the opportunity to to do better today than you did yesterday. That is shining on, and that is what I want to encourage you to do, because we're all called to that, whether Whether you believe in Jesus Christ or not. Guess what can be improved in your life right now? Your shine. Anyway, I don't want to talk around this too much.

Speaker 1: 14:07

Let's move on to our quotes, and then we'll end with that, all right. First up, we got a great one maya angelou. She says nothing can dim the light that shines from within. I genuinely believe that that is true. Well, it's true up to the point that you decide to stop shining. If you decide to snuff out your own light, then, yeah, that'll dim it, all right. But she is right in saying that people can put a curfew on you, people can oppress you. People can, you know, take away your freedom of speech in public places or take away your right to make money or whatever. They can limit you on the outside, but nothing can take away your ability to think I am still me. Your ability to think I am still valuable, your ability to believe Jesus calls me friend. All of that is light shining from within and no one.

Speaker 1: 15:20

My friends, no one can take that from you. You just got to remember to keep putting in that kind of stuff so that you have a light to shine when it comes time for darkness, because darkness will come. So, just you know, prepare for it. Anyway, let's move on to the next quote, next up, by Beth Moore. She says let your light shine today and let your personality blossom too.

Speaker 1: 15:44

You don't have to be a people pleaser, just a people lover. I love this one, and this is the one out of the three that, quite frankly, just speaks to me the most, because I am a recovering people pleaser, recovering chronic people pleaser. Because if I grew up and whatnot, I just, I just always had a need to do things for people, to make them like me, or to just I just hated conflict, and so I would go out of my way, bend over backwards and just sacrifice my own desires and, even worse, my own value for someone else's approval, and not even approval of my value, but approval of just what I did for them. It wasn't healthy, but I believe it's so apt to remind you and remind myself, because I do need. I do need that reminder sometimes, a lot of times, as, uh, recent events have taught me.

Speaker 1: 16:52

I don't have to be a people pleaser. That's not what Christ calls me to do. The second commandment in the Bible is not about you shall please your neighbor as yourself. That sounds weird. Don't do that. That's called assault, anyway. Oh man, my Navy's showing. All right, but that was funny, though. If you don't like that joke, I'm sorry. It's going to happen again. All right, you know I can't unhear it now. You don't have to be happy. Please bear with me.

Speaker 1: 17:34

I'm so sorry I apologize All right Back to the seriousness.

Speaker 1: 17:44

You don't have to be a people pleaser, just a people lover, and that's what the second commandment is all about. First is to love your God with all your heart. Second is to love your neighbor as yourself. If I remember correctly, we're supposed to love people, not just go around trying to make them happy in the moment or please them or get their temporary approval. We're supposed to love them, and sometimes it is true that when you love something or someone, it may end up meaning that you have to let them go. That's not going to please them but, depending on the circumstances, it would qualify as an act of love. Sometimes loving someone, not pleasing them. Loving them means saying no, and sometimes loving someone the more conventional way means saying no to yourself so that you can say yes to them. Sometimes love will demand a sacrifice and it's up to you to find that place and to learn of that place, where that place is for you. Um, as far as like the balance between am I doing this just to please them or am I doing this because I love them? Which one is it all right? So think about that and let's move on to the last one as we close by alexander den high, higher. Oh, that's an interesting name. It's spelled H, e, I, j E R. He's your, he's your I. I'm sorry, alexander.

Speaker 1: 19:24

They said stars don't shine because they want to be seen. They shine because they are stars. And this is for you to recount to yourself and recall. Any time you would encounter a would-be hater, do not give them the time of day if they're telling you that you chasing after your dreams, is you, quote-unquote, doing too much? Or if you going back to school, to, or taking an online certification course so that you can get a better job and make more money, oh, you, you're just so materialistic and blah, blah, blah. Nah, you're trying to that. Is you trying to up your shine? And guess why you feel the need to up your shine? Because you're a star, because you're made that way, my friends, even if right now your job is being a janitor in a middle school. If you genuinely enjoy that mission of keeping the space clean, so that your kids, the kids around you, the children that thank you in the morning or that walk around and keep leaving gum in places they shouldn't, so that those kids that you care about can stay healthy and come back every day to a clean place to continue their education. That is because of you. That is because of you.

Speaker 1: 21:00

So if someone tells you that that job is not worth doing or is so low or whatever, and you shouldn't care about pouring more money into getting more equipment or petitioning to the administration to care more about the chemicals that they're using to clean the facilities and they're trying to tell you, like you know, oh, you should just stay in your lane, just clean and use what we tell you to use, or whatever. You're just trying to become more important than you are. No, you are trying to shine in your assignment because you are a star. Being a janitor at a middle school isn't a front stage thing, but guess what? That school does not survive without you, nowhere survives without people like you. So here's my advice Shine on when it's getting dark around you, when people leave that you think shouldn't, when people talk about you in a way that is, shall we say, dishonest or does not represent you properly.

Speaker 1: 22:07

Shine on when your plans don't work out the way that you want them to.

Speaker 1: 22:17

Shine on when you are the subject of your own ire, when you make mistakes, when you slip up and fall down and say the wrong thing, or you go the wrong place, or you do the wrong thing, or you link up with the wrong people.

Speaker 1: 22:36

Stop what you're doing, turn around, go the other way and shine on. Don't be stuck in the past, don't be stuck in the prostrate position. Get up, dust yourself off, realize that you're still breathing, there's still breath in your lungs and therefore, you have not just an opportunity, but, my friends, you have a duty to seek out the true you and shine on. There is someone out there that desperately needs to see your light not mine, not Denzel Washington's, not Tom Cruise's, not Donald Trump's, not some other big name that we know on TV or on movies or whatever. They need to see your light because you're the closest thing they've got to a lighthouse. So swap your batteries out or plug yourself in Whatever you got to do, whatever analogy you want to use. Just stop wasting time, stop being scared, stop being nervous and, even if you are all those things, do it anyway and shine on, because that is when you will truly be operating as the true you. Thanks for listening from us.