Being Light In a Dark Place

A fitness industry professional shares his thoughts on showing Christian
love in the workplace – and anywhere else.

            As I prepared to write this short piece, my thoughts turned several times to Jesus when he asked Peter the question, “Who do you say I am?”

            It struck me that as we empty ourselves in our walk with Christ we are filled with a greater measure of Him.  That being true, Christ within us should be more and more evident to those around us as our faith deepens and matures.  Our witness to others, demonstrated by the fruit of the Spirit, pierces the heart of unbelievers and confronts them with the same question that Jesus asked Peter. 

In other words, when someone learns that you are a Christian they will almost certainly weigh their opinion of you against their opinion of Christians in general.  What do they see?  Do they see Christ within you or do they merely see you in all your decidedly frail humanity?

I work in the fitness industry and have for many years now.  In that time, I have seen more depravity than I care to remember.  The fitness industry embraces sin and rebellion with a ferocity that can at times be shocking.  Worship of outer beauty is a given, as is the sad prevalence of innumerable hucksters selling whatever snake-oil is fashionable this month (for a while people were selling desiccated pond scum…yum). 

Another rising tide in fitness is a turn to new age religion.  For any of you who are fitness buffs, I caution you to examine carefully any fitness program you get into.  If you’re being asked to get in touch with anything spiritual that is not of Christ, you’re inviting unwelcome forces into your life. 

As I watched all of this going on around me day after day, I became angry.  I was tired of the haughty souls that shared a laugh about either how dull-witted or how hypocritical Christians were.  I was disgusted with some of my fellow personal trainers who preyed upon their client’s ignorance and used it as a money-making opportunity, and I was becoming furious at the growing enthusiasm for exercise classes that openly incorporated pagan beliefs as a part of their regimen. 

The worse the environment around me became, the more religious I got – and therein lay the problem.  Few people at the gym where I worked knew that I was a Christian.  I just quietly disapproved of them and went on with what I thought was at least an adequate relationship with Jesus.  So if the world around me had suddenly discovered that I was a believer, what would have been their answer to the question, “Who do you say I am?” 

My witness at that time in my life would have shown them a Christ who was marginally worth following.  My heart did not ache for the lost.  I did not love these blind and misguided people, maybe because I was still a little blind and misguided myself. 

In time I learned that every person has a story.  There is sin and pain engraved upon the heart of every human being.  As I befriended these people whom I thought to be so different from me, I found out that we really weren’t so different after all.  They needed Jesus so badly in their lives and in their hearts, and all I had been offering them was condemnation when I should had been offering them a glimpse of the Son of God. 

The fitness industry is a very dark place; it’s probably similar in some respects to where you work.  But remember that you and I are called to be salt and light to the world.  We must continue to hold the Bible up as what it is – the immutable Word of God.  However, we do not look in its pages to see what standard we can measure others against.  Doesn’t it also say that we will be judged by the same standard we apply to others?  So, what does it mean to be salt and light?  What is it about us that will cause people to see Christ when they look at us?  The answer is simple: We are salt and light when our neighbors see Christ in our words and in our actions, and they will see Christ in us when we are willing to submit ourselves completely to His will. 

When you first approached the foot of His cross, with tears in your eyes and remorse in your heart, you began a lifelong journey.  In my walk with the Lord I have learned what Paul meant when he said, “I die daily.”  I was so consumed with the struggle of becoming more Christ-like that I didn’t realize that my struggle wasn’t against my old nature, my old nature was struggling with God so that it might live just one more day.  The inner struggle eases as we in our weakness lay our corruption at His feet, and Christ within us grows as we surrender yet another piece of the former self.

Want to be salt and light?  Then move out of His way and let Him work.  This is not a time for Christians to circle the wagons and assume a defensive and isolationist posture against this world. You are more than conquerors through Him who loves you! Read the Word of God daily.  Pray for your relationship with Him and pray for others.  Find a church that is steadfast in its adherence to the bible and is equally passionate in its longing to reach the lost. Fellowship with your brothers and sisters in Christ, and reach out in love to anyone who asks of you. 

As you do all of these things you are sacrificing your time and your own childish self-interest, and as these are sacrificed, so will be the parts of you that you still withhold from Him.  From this emerges God’s perfect plan for your life.  Then you will begin to know the genuine joy that too few Christians seem to possess, and that will inspire others to answer as Peter did when faced with the question, “Who do you say I am?”