Bees don’t analyze how they make honey…they just do it.
Birds don’t get up in the morning and think, “How am I supposed to do this flying thing?”…They just fly.
It is simply their nature.
There are many, many things, both positive and negative, that are simply “part of my nature." I’m sure it’s the same for you. For example, I’m usually patient with others, but I don’t like standing in long lines…there are few things in the world worth such torture, in my opinion. I am usually pretty calm and reserved, but I have so much energy reserved that I have to find ways do safely release it every day, which usually involves a trip to Judson’s fitness center. Everything about me is neat and orderly on the outside, but I’m very scatterbrained, absent-minded, and as my mother always reminds me, “lacking in common sense” on the inside.
But all of these contradictory elements make me…me.
They are simply my nature.
Today’s chapel speaker, Reverend Thurman of Montgomery, AL, reminded Judson students of two such elements a Christian woman should possess…two elements that should simply be “part of our nature.”
The reverend used that all-too-familiar passage from Matthew 5 to drive his point home:
"You are the salt of the earth, but if salt has lost its taste, how shall its saltiness be restored? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled under people’s feet.
"You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden. Nor do people light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on a stand, and it gives light to all in the house. In the same way let your light shine before others, so that they may see your good works and give glory to your Father who is in heaven.”
He insisted that we are to be agitators, that we have a moral obligation to speak up, acting as the salt, which preserves the integrity of those around us.
Agitators? I’d never heard this spin on the salt and light passage…he definitely had my attention.
Then, Reverend Thurman continued by telling us how imperative it is that we also be illuminators, that we have a “moral mandate to let people know that there are better times ahead.”
He challenged us to examine our most precious possession, our time. “What have you done with the time given to you?” He asked, “How have you illuminated and agitated?”
Even though I am a very goal oriented person, I can safely say that I do not wake up in the morning and say to myself, “How shall I agitate and illuminate today?”
But I should.
My entire day, every day, should be based off of this wisdom from the book of Matthew. I should be so consumed with these ideas of being the “salt and light,” to the point where it eventually becomes part of what makes me…me.
Bees don’t analyze how they make honey…they just do it.
Birds don’t get up in the morning and think, “How am I supposed to do this flying thing?”…They just fly.
It is simply their nature.
My prayer during the remainder of my precious time at Judson, as well as the time that follows, is that I will be and be known as an agitator and an illuminator…may it become a part of my personality. I hope that these elements are just as much a part of who I am as that impatient roll of the eyes that always comes about while I’m waiting to get some chicken fingers in the dining hall or that need to jog a few miles before I go to bed at night…may they simply become part of my nature.
That’s right…Spring Break is almost here! 
, but after hearing her story during chapel…I know that she wasn’t always an “angel.” Mrs. Beard told us about growing up in church, loving her mama, her life of crime, and her time spent in prison. (No, this is not a typo). She even told us that her life was an example of “how not to do it.” I was amazed to hear how a few tiny thoughts, some common bad attitudes, and a few misinformed decisions led her right onto the FBI’s most wanted list. Now she’s the founder and leader of a ministry that is touching the lives of children across our nation.
