Inspirational: YOUR LIGHT HAS ALWAYS SHINED

by: Linda Kirby/WGON 6.8.26

Sometimes the strongest believers ask the hardest questions. Even the ones who have walked with Jesus for decades can find themselves whispering, “Lord… did I do something wrong?”

A dear friend of mine — a woman whose life has shined for Christ for as long as I’ve known her — asked me that today. She’s recovering from a stroke, struggling with weakness, memory lapses, and the humbling reality of needing help with things she once did with ease. And in her quiet moments, fear crept in.

“Why is God letting this happen? Am I not pleasing Him?”

Oh, how many of us have asked that same question when life knocks the breath out of us. Not because we believe God is punishing us… but because we’re desperate for relief, for meaning, for reassurance that we’re still held in His hands.

I told her what I know to be true: We live in a fallen world, and sickness is part of that fall. God doesn’t sit in heaven handing out strokes like punishments. And if He ever needs to get our attention, He knows how to do it — but I know this woman. I’ve known her for fourteen years. Her fruit has always been sweet and good. Her life has always pointed to Jesus.

Then she said something that broke my heart a little: “I’ve wondered why I was even put here in the first place.”

I told her the truth — the simple truth we forget when we’re hurting: Sometimes our purpose isn’t some grand assignment. Sometimes it’s as simple as being a bright light in a dark world. And she has always been that. A godly wife. A steady example. A quiet testimony that someone, somewhere, may have watched and found their way to Jesus because of her.

We don’t always know our purpose on this side of heaven. But we do know this: God sees. God remembers. God delights in His children.

And as I told her — though I’m not Jesus — from where I stand, she just might hear those precious words one day:

“Well done, good and faithful servant.”