“I lost all my friends at school. Now that I’ve begun to ‘walk my talk,’ they make fun of me.” Rachel’s journal entries showed her disappointment that the very people to whom she wanted to show Christ’s love turned away from her. But she wouldn’t give in.
“I am not going to apologize for speaking the name of Jesus. I will take it. If my friends have to become my enemies for me to be with my best friend, Jesus, then that’s fine with me. I always knew being a Christian means having enemies, but I never thought that my ‘friends’ were going to be those enemies.”
Rachel was a student at Columbine High School on the day two students opened fire in the school. One gunman asked her if she still believed in God. She looked him in the eye and said yes, she still believed. He asked her why, but he didn’t let her answer before killing her.
Rachel Scott passed her test, and because she did, her light reached beyond her school to around the world. Long before the test came, Rachel expressed her willingness to give her all for Christ. The words from her journal, written exactly one year before her death, tell about her commitment: “I am not going to hide the light that God has put into me. If I have to sacrifice everything, I will.”
Faith is the invisible expression of our personal relationship with Christ. The Bible characterizes people’s faith as a light—a diffusion of hope that affects everyone around them. Jesus chose this illustration because of light’s inability to be restrained. For example, reading by flashlight under the covers, unknown to the average child, is hardly effective in terms of disguising late-night activity! Light simply shines by its very nature—despite our attempts to restrain it. Likewise, tension arises in believers’ lives when they must choose to fully express their faith or attempt to muffle it someway. With the reliability of the daily sunrise, those who have affirmed their decision once and for all find shining their light to be second nature.
