Stars Don't Shine - They Burn
Stars Don’t Shine - They Burn
My girls, like many other kids, enjoy watching Disney movies. While I’m neither condemning nor condoning Disney or its movies, I do want to give an example from one of their animated films. There’s a particular movie that is only a few years old and has an astoundingly powerful theological line in it, and they probably don’t even know they put it in the movie. There’s a line in one of the songs that the main character sings that says, “stars don’t shine they burn.”
This really got me thinking about light, light sources - both natural and artificial - and light resources. It got me thinking about what it means to burn for Christ and what it means to be the light of the world. It got me thinking about the call and charge that Christ gives to be a light in the darkness. It got me thinking about the state of both the Church and Christians.
The very first words spoken, the very first thing created was light. We translate the first words ever spoken as “let there be,” and this is rightly true. But the part of speech that we translate from Hebrew is a verb. The first word spoke was a verb. Action. God’s first word was a call to action. And I really don’t think anything has changed since. God is still calling us to action. To burn.
And after seeing that the light was good, God immediately separated it from darkness. This has always been a great distinction between light and dark. Not just in physical day and night but in the implications of what both light and dark both mean and represent in this world.
Right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:14 that we are the light of the world. We are to be both the distinction and the separation from the world. This is also another reason that we are to be in the world but not of the world. We need to be out there shining our light, but not letting the darkness overtake and consume us. We are to expose the darkness, but not be influenced by it.
In Jesus’ day, there was no electricity. Nothing shined. Everything burned. Light was produced by the burning of a resource. In Jesus’ day, a city on a hill didn’t shine - it burned. Even the sun doesn’t “shine” - it burns. In order for light to shine, a fuel source has to be burned. It’s the burning that produces what we call shine.
Around the world, there are several eternal flames, meaning the flame never goes out. This is because the fuel source never runs out. As Christians, our fuel source truly never runs out. But what determines the strength of the flame is the amount of fuel being sent to the flame. There’s always a nozzle that opens and closes to allow more or less fuel to feed the flame.
I truly believe that God lets us regulate this in our own lives through free will. His resources are endless. His source of spiritual fuel for us is endless. It’s not Him that determines how big, how bright, or hot how we burn for Him. We determine this. We can tap in or tap out of this endless fuel source of the Holy Spirit.
To continue through Jesus’ point in the Sermon on the Mount, in verse 15 He challenges the placement of a lamp. A light put under a basket may not be useless, but it certainly is pointless. Sadly, I think many Christians live in this space. If we are hiding our light in some way, we aren’t useless, we aren’t worthless, but we could be pointless. Covered or hidden light is good for no one.
Another way of making the same point is this - if you have to tell someone you’re a Christian… are you? I’m not making that statement to hurt anyone. What I’m saying is, I agree with Jesus in that it is our life, our actions, our doings as Christians that should be doing the telling for us.
The very next verse, 16, Jesus challenges and charges His followers with this, “…let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” A more literal translation of that Greek verse could be “in the same way (as a lamp on a table vs. 15) shine the light you have in front of mankind so they may see/perceive/experience the noble/honorable character in your tasks or employment, and they will bestow honor and glory to your Father in heaven.” That’s a very long way to say this… actions speak louder than words… and a hidden light is useless to all.
The purpose of light is for the darkness, not because of it. Since there is a separation and a distinction between the two, light is for darkness not because of it. Light was created first. They were not created together.
In John’s gospel account of Jesus, he begins in chapter 1 verse 5 with something so poetically beautiful. He writes, “the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (NIV). The beauty of this scripture is in the meaning of the word translated to “overcome.” In the Greek, that word means capture, catch, arrest, or to grasp forcefully.
Have you ever tried to catch or grab ahold of the sunshine? Of course you have. If you haven’t, go try. You cannot do it. No one can. Neither can darkness. At best, darkness can try and cover or snuff out the light that we shine. It can try and tarnish the lamp that the flame resides in. Darkness cannot extinguish light, but light will always extinguish darkness.
To be the light of the world you don’t shine - you must burn. Let your light shine and let your life burn. Let there burn light. Let there be life. The darkness cannot extinguish the light we have, the light we bring, and the light we shine.
Candles light other candles. Bonfires burn the forest down. Yes, it is true that a single spark can set a forest ablaze, but it is not the spark or the flame that determines this, but the readiness of the environment. This world is dying for the light that we have. It may not be popular in the current world in which we live, but it has never been more necessary.
So shine your light to a world in desperate need so they may be able to see clearly. Don’t get overwhelmed with trying to lighten up the world but stay intensely focused on lighting up your world. The people around you. The people in your sphere of influence. The people you come in contact with on a daily basis.
You can be a light of many different brightnesses. The fuel source that we have is endless. Choose every day to allow the Holy Spirit to flood your light and make you burn brighter every day.
It’s not a matter of if you burn, it’s a matter of who or what you burn for. So burn for Him. Ever brighter until the day when the whole world will see Him outshine the sun. Because stars don’t shine - they burn.
My girls, like many other kids, enjoy watching Disney movies. While I’m neither condemning nor condoning Disney or its movies, I do want to give an example from one of their animated films. There’s a particular movie that is only a few years old and has an astoundingly powerful theological line in it, and they probably don’t even know they put it in the movie. There’s a line in one of the songs that the main character sings that says, “stars don’t shine they burn.”
This really got me thinking about light, light sources - both natural and artificial - and light resources. It got me thinking about what it means to burn for Christ and what it means to be the light of the world. It got me thinking about the call and charge that Christ gives to be a light in the darkness. It got me thinking about the state of both the Church and Christians.
The very first words spoken, the very first thing created was light. We translate the first words ever spoken as “let there be,” and this is rightly true. But the part of speech that we translate from Hebrew is a verb. The first word spoke was a verb. Action. God’s first word was a call to action. And I really don’t think anything has changed since. God is still calling us to action. To burn.
And after seeing that the light was good, God immediately separated it from darkness. This has always been a great distinction between light and dark. Not just in physical day and night but in the implications of what both light and dark both mean and represent in this world.
Right in the middle of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus tells us in Matthew 5:14 that we are the light of the world. We are to be both the distinction and the separation from the world. This is also another reason that we are to be in the world but not of the world. We need to be out there shining our light, but not letting the darkness overtake and consume us. We are to expose the darkness, but not be influenced by it.
In Jesus’ day, there was no electricity. Nothing shined. Everything burned. Light was produced by the burning of a resource. In Jesus’ day, a city on a hill didn’t shine - it burned. Even the sun doesn’t “shine” - it burns. In order for light to shine, a fuel source has to be burned. It’s the burning that produces what we call shine.
Around the world, there are several eternal flames, meaning the flame never goes out. This is because the fuel source never runs out. As Christians, our fuel source truly never runs out. But what determines the strength of the flame is the amount of fuel being sent to the flame. There’s always a nozzle that opens and closes to allow more or less fuel to feed the flame.
I truly believe that God lets us regulate this in our own lives through free will. His resources are endless. His source of spiritual fuel for us is endless. It’s not Him that determines how big, how bright, or hot how we burn for Him. We determine this. We can tap in or tap out of this endless fuel source of the Holy Spirit.
To continue through Jesus’ point in the Sermon on the Mount, in verse 15 He challenges the placement of a lamp. A light put under a basket may not be useless, but it certainly is pointless. Sadly, I think many Christians live in this space. If we are hiding our light in some way, we aren’t useless, we aren’t worthless, but we could be pointless. Covered or hidden light is good for no one.
Another way of making the same point is this - if you have to tell someone you’re a Christian… are you? I’m not making that statement to hurt anyone. What I’m saying is, I agree with Jesus in that it is our life, our actions, our doings as Christians that should be doing the telling for us.
The very next verse, 16, Jesus challenges and charges His followers with this, “…let your light shine before men so that they may see your good works and glorify your Father in heaven.” A more literal translation of that Greek verse could be “in the same way (as a lamp on a table vs. 15) shine the light you have in front of mankind so they may see/perceive/experience the noble/honorable character in your tasks or employment, and they will bestow honor and glory to your Father in heaven.” That’s a very long way to say this… actions speak louder than words… and a hidden light is useless to all.
The purpose of light is for the darkness, not because of it. Since there is a separation and a distinction between the two, light is for darkness not because of it. Light was created first. They were not created together.
In John’s gospel account of Jesus, he begins in chapter 1 verse 5 with something so poetically beautiful. He writes, “the Light shines in the darkness and the darkness has not overcome it” (NIV). The beauty of this scripture is in the meaning of the word translated to “overcome.” In the Greek, that word means capture, catch, arrest, or to grasp forcefully.
Have you ever tried to catch or grab ahold of the sunshine? Of course you have. If you haven’t, go try. You cannot do it. No one can. Neither can darkness. At best, darkness can try and cover or snuff out the light that we shine. It can try and tarnish the lamp that the flame resides in. Darkness cannot extinguish light, but light will always extinguish darkness.
To be the light of the world you don’t shine - you must burn. Let your light shine and let your life burn. Let there burn light. Let there be life. The darkness cannot extinguish the light we have, the light we bring, and the light we shine.
Candles light other candles. Bonfires burn the forest down. Yes, it is true that a single spark can set a forest ablaze, but it is not the spark or the flame that determines this, but the readiness of the environment. This world is dying for the light that we have. It may not be popular in the current world in which we live, but it has never been more necessary.
So shine your light to a world in desperate need so they may be able to see clearly. Don’t get overwhelmed with trying to lighten up the world but stay intensely focused on lighting up your world. The people around you. The people in your sphere of influence. The people you come in contact with on a daily basis.
You can be a light of many different brightnesses. The fuel source that we have is endless. Choose every day to allow the Holy Spirit to flood your light and make you burn brighter every day.
It’s not a matter of if you burn, it’s a matter of who or what you burn for. So burn for Him. Ever brighter until the day when the whole world will see Him outshine the sun. Because stars don’t shine - they burn.
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