Leading with Light

My father and grandfather were preachers.  I remember mission Sundays where I would hear the visiting missionaries recount stories of sharing their faith in forests and deserts.  In fact, as a girl in elementary school, I felt called to the mission field and even walked down the aisle one mission Sunday to commit my young self to that path.

Little did I know.  

I would serve on a mission field.  A vast and neglected field called corporate America.  

I don’t fight malaria.  I fight malaise.  

I don’t fight parasites.  I fight pride.  

I don’t fight Ebola.  I fight apathy.

How do you bring a message of grace and rescue to a community succeeding by every measurable metric offered by current culture?  From personal experience.  

I live in a state of being offered lavish grace and rescue so (hopefully) I reflect that in my daily life.  I offer it in daily encounters.  

I have battled ego and pride, and I know that regardless of the next success achieved, the hole of needing more still grows.  I have received promotions and financial improvements, but I’ve learned that I can’t buy enough to satisfy the craving of my soul.  I have volunteered and given back to the community only to realize that will still never make me “good enough.”  

Because of my faith, I have found a constant supply of grace and love and forgiveness and acceptance.   It has faltered.  I have struggled.  My strong faith of childhood met obstacles and got derailed along the way.  But God, always the welcoming Father to the prodigal child, allowed me to come home and know Him more and serve Him in this simple way.  

I lead with Light.  

I don’t know that I’ve ever shared Romans 8 or John 3:16 with a co-worker or fellow board member or neighbor.  But over the course of my career, this is what I’ve heard:

You’re effervescent.  

You are always so happy. I don’t know how you do it.  

We love spending time with you. You’re so positive.

This year, as a gift I couldn’t have even asked for, I heard things like, “I found my way back to God because of you.”  Let me say this, it wasn’t BECAUSE of me.  It was because of Him.  But do you know I never tried to evangelize or preach or pass judgment on anyone?  People recognize something different.  

In today’s culture, if you are leading with Light from the only true source of light, YOU WILL STAND OUT.  You will be noticed.  You will draw others to you.  And they will find their way because of your love and your joy and your ability to refrain from gossip and judgment.  That will set you apart, and it will make those around you want what you have.  

Don’t ever doubt you are called to be a light.  You may be working in a third world desert, but you may work on the 30th floor in Big City downtown.  He needs you to serve there.  He needs you to lead there.  

John 8:12: Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying,
“I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.”

Gindi Eckel Vincent

Gindi Eckel Vincent is councel at ExxonMobil.  She is a writer, speaker, mom and wife. You can follow Gindi on Twitter @JustGindi.