by Jennifer Wade, DDS

Have you been frustrated or angry with anything in the last year? Maybe a better question would be, “How many times have you been frustrated or angry in the last year,” because it was a doozy. Over the course of 2020, God helped me wrestle through a lot of those frustrating things. I thought I’d grown past the point of letting the continued craziness get to me. I recently realized, however, that though I have grown spiritually this year through handling difficulties in my life and the world around me, I have also become apathetic at times as well. I realized my decreased response to bad news wasn’t necessarily maturity but born apathy of being tired of it all. God convicted me of this reality when someone was giving me a news update last week. I just nodded and tuned them out, because in my mind it was just more bad news, and I didn’t want to know more because I didn’t want to have to think about it.

Some of you may have done the same thing at different times throughout the year because it just didn’t seem like we had the capacity to process any more change, heartache or disappointment. But with God’s conviction also came encouragement. In the midst of all this darkness, we have light, and we are called to be light to the world. James tells us, “Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows” (James 1:17, NIV). Since we are the children of the Father of the heavenly lights, we are also lights in this world. “You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven” (Matthew 5:14-16, NIV).

We have so much hope that the world needs and that we ourselves need. When we hear another story from our patients of the loss or trials of 2020, we can either just toss it aside with the rest of the terribleness, or we can let our light shine before them. We can love them, pray for them and share the truth they need to hear to praise our Father. Amazing things will happen in our lives, the lives of our patients and this world when the children of God remember to let their light shine.