“That’s just the way I am.”

“What you see is what you get.”

“It is what it is.”

We use these phrases a lot of times as an excuse. Don’t control me. Don’t change me. I’m going to be loud and obnoxious so just deal with it.

But if you look past the excuses, these phrases hold a lot of truth. Another way to say those things is “This is us.” And that’s what we talked about this week. We are Northbrook.

We are you! We are every single one of you, in every single thing that you do. We are you on your good days and your bad days. We are you when you’re generous and when you’re stingy. When you talk about someone and when you pray for someone. When you’re mad and when you’re full of joy.

That’s just the way it is. Because this is us.

Every time we walk into the church building that Northbrook calls home, we experience each other. We take in each other in relationship. And life flows from our relationships with each other. We are kind, loving, moody, irritable, annoying, compassionate, tolerant…all of those things. We take the good with the bad because that’s what relationship is all about.

Then we go out of the building that Northbrook calls home…and we ARE Northbrook. In the community, at work, in a restaurant, even in our homes. But we take a part of that relationship with us.

Now, it may be a nice strategy to be on our best behavior everywhere we go. So let’s just focus on the good parts while we are in relationship. Plaster over the bad, correct the mistakes, and ignore the problems. But that wouldn’t be real, would it? That wouldn’t be honest.

Here at Northbrook we have a set of values we try to live by. We have them written down as statements:

• Real People, Real Problems, Real Questions
• Love Intentionally
• Generations Need Each Other
• Families Matter
• Everything Speaks
• Taking Next Steps Toward God

Let’s be honest. We put those in an order for a reason. If we can’t be real people, then it’s going to be infinitely harder to love intentionally. We won’t understand the importance of generations and families. We’ll find it very difficult to take next steps toward God.

But when we are real, well…we have some problems. Real problems. We went ahead and just added that in to make sure everyone gets it. We aren’t going to be real by being real squeaky clean. We’re going to be ourselves. This is us. And we’ll have real questions. But that’s okay, because once we get there we’ll love each other intentionally, through each generation and in each family, as we take next steps toward God. I think you’re starting to get it.

We’re going to have good days and bad days. We’ll have issues. And that’s fine. Churches have had issues since the beginning of the writing of the Bible. It didn’t stop them. It won’t stop us. That was them. This is us. Here we are.

At the heart of being real people is having real stories and histories that shaped us that way. Someone doesn’t wake up and decide to be a jerk or have an addiction or bear a wound from a past relationship. Those things result from life events. And when we are compelled by love for each other, we dig below the surface to hear those stories and discover those histories so we understand better.

We’re going to get on each other’s nerves sometimes. We’re going to hurt each other. This is us. We’re also going to love each other. We’re going to go out and show the world what it means to be real people with real problems who really love each other. And that’s going to make all the difference.

 you ever tried walking in the dark? Maybe you get up late at night and since you don’t want to wake your spouse you leave the lights out. You make your way into the kitchen by feel and memory. You walk cautiously, slowly.

Then you flip on the light. Everything is illuminated. You have your bearings. You have your confidence back. It’s a relief.

How many of us feel like we’re walking around in the dark? Maybe it’s just blurry, kind of a cloud. We have a form of existential angst that keeps our eyes shut. Then we encounter a light. An ah-ha moment or some breakthrough. Everything starts to make sense again.

In the faith, we know what that illumination is. It’s the Spirit of God enlightening our life. It’s the God of lights shining down from above. It’s Jesus, the divine presence we practice.

Here’s something, though. Read these two verses and tell me what you see.

“I am the light of the world.”

John 18:12

“You are the light of the world.”

Matthew 5:14

Wait a minute. Which is it? Is Jesus the light of the world, or are we? Are we both somehow the light of the world, simultaneously? How would that even work?

I’m not going to spend a great deal of time here splitting theological hairs. But I do think it’s important to think through this. It’s not that we and Jesus are both the light of the world, our work completely independent of each other. And although it’s true that we reflect his light to the world, like the moon reflects the sun’s, wouldn’t the world rather have the direct light of Jesus?

I think there’s something more to be said here. When we have the light of Jesus within us, we radiate that to others. They can see Jesus when they see us. And he goes on to tell us exactly how that’s accomplished.

“In the same way let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your father in heaven”

Matthew 5:16

They see our good deeds. Not our good works. Not our own efforts to keep our noses clean. But how we go about living day-to-day with the light of the world fully alive within us.

Jesus, as the light of the world, was not about moral realignment. He’s not about making us perfect examples of how to do this thing the right way. He was about how we impact others through simple love.

When we only think of it in terms of doing things right, then our message gets reduced to “Jesus loves you, so stop doing bad stuff.” Instead, he’s much more concerned with our presence in the world. That’s because he was all about his own presence in the world.

1. A.W. Tozer talked about this, and I’m going to change it up just a little bit. “God’s presence, not my obedience, is the central fact of Christianity.” In other words, whether I can cross every “t” and dot every “I” means little if I’m not living out the very presence of God in love to my neighbor. And we can be sure of that, because that’s how Jesus loved his neighbor.

He came to a world who desperately needed him. But not as judge, jury, and executionary. But as neighbor and friend. Faithfully present. And he wants us to follow that same pattern. God with us, us with others. That’s how we become the light of the world.

You are the light as you live your life in the everyday routine, living in such a way that your life reveals the presence of God. Let’s take one more look at that key verse, this time from one of my favorite translations, the Message.

“Here’s another way to put it: You’re here to be light, bringing out the God-colors in the world.”

How are you bringing out the colors of God, the light of the world, who is already there?

I want to change the world! Really? Can we really change the world?  Well, maybe not the world, or at least the whole world. But the space we inhabit, the little corner of the world we call home? Absolutely.

When we reset spiritually, it affects so much of our lives. It should, at least. When you reset your phone or computer, you expect everything to be better. When you reset your body by a change in diet or exercise, you expect huge changes. It’s the same when we reset spiritually.

Jesus came to turn the world upside down. Over time, I think we got turned right side up again. The church has thought more like the world at different times in history. It started looking a lot like an earthly kingdom and a lot less like heaven. We need to reset. We need to go upside down again.

One way to get upside down is to take on the attitude of a humble servant. Humility and service. Those words don’t work too well in corporate America, on the campaign trail, or – let’s be honest – in our own hearts.

It’s not that no one is familiar with these concepts. The idea of “servant leadership” is everywhere. Websites. Seminars. Books. Whole cottage industries set up to guide Fortune 500 companies into a different way of doing business that focuses on employee well-being and retention as a key means of success

Humble. Servant. Sounds good as a business idea. It’s even nice to think of those who serve us, or who are our employees, should be humble servants. But when we’re the boss? It’s a whole different story.

For every blog post out there expounding the joys and success of servant leadership you’ll find another blog post proclaiming its defects and demise.

Now, maybe you’re thinking that you’re not a boss. You don’t own a company. If anything, you’re in middle management so you answer to others.

But the reality is this – we are all bosses somewhere. We all have times in our day when others answer to us. Or at least we think they should.

At a restaurant, we’re the boss of the waiter who better get our food to us quick.

In traffic, we’re the boss sitting in our car wondering why no one else wants to get anywhere today.

During a school conference, we’re the boss and that math teacher better listen to us and pass our kids.

At home, we’re the boss of the place. We’re the “King of the Castle.” Or queen, for that matter. We sit on our make believe throne and rule out judgments against everyone else in the cul-de-sac.

“Why don’t they rake their leaves?” we think as we walk past their messy yard.

Or…

“Why are they hassling me about raking my leaves,” as we hurry past our messy yard to get inside.

The point is this. We all have moments in our lives where we can be the boss. We can be humble. We can be servants. We can choose to adopt an attitude where we don’t think too highly or too lowly about ourselves. We can put others first, in small ways at small times.

It may not change the world. That’s okay. It can change your little corner of the world, though. And that may mean more than making the front page of the USA Today. It could mean a better life for your neighbor. And isn’t that what Jesus was all about? Loving our neighbors?

So this week, I want to challenge you to reset and think of ways to be a humble servant when you get to be the boss.