This week is pure fun. Shining is not a chore. It’s not a task on your to-do list. It’s not cranking up a factory to produce something. It’s more like breaking up a log jam to let a river flow.

The first five habits are about breaking up the log jam. When you practice them, it is impossible not to shine. Let’s review:

Habit #1 Make brokenness a door

You admit your need. You don’t pretend all is well. You declare bankruptcy and throw yourself on God’s mercy.  

Habit #2 Trust Jesus

You take Jesus’ hand and follow. You still have a lot of questions. You might be suffering. You may feel angry. It’s okay. You feel Christ’s presence. Slowly, you learn to trust.

Habit #3 Hope in God

Where is Jesus taking you? In a word, life. He called it the Kingdom of God. God’s life is bigger than death but you don’t have to wait until you die to enter it. You don’t deny the groaning of this world but you see hope poking through everywhere.

Habit #4 Let God love you

You discover something wonderful: God loves you and is working in all things for your good.  God is making you something wonderful—your true self.

Habit #5 Love everyone

Your experience of God’s love changes the way you think of others. Just as God is redeeming you, God is at work in everything he has made. You feel connected with other people—in fact with every created thing. The entire universe is part of the same great story, being made new by the same love.

Habit #6 Shine

You are being made new! This is not up in the clouds. It is your way of life. You dance to heaven’s tune. You delight in the unique expression of God’s glory that you are. You shine. 

You are the light of the world—like a city on a hilltop that cannot be hidden. (Matthew 5:14)

Our world is pretty good at convincing us there is nothing special about us. You may feel about as exciting as oatmeal. Here are seven ways to overcome that lie and to allow God to shine through you.  

7 Ways to Polish Your Shine

1. Embrace your purpose.

My favorite thing in the whole wide world is to put on my backpack and head into the wilderness for a week of solitude. The further I wander from the trail, the better I like it. It’s like getting in on a secret. I see alpine lakes that few eyes ever have. I soak up shooting stars and fiery red sunsets. I admire wildflowers. I have a free ticket to the greatest show on earth and have the whole theater to myself.

But what kind of a lunatic would put on such a show, knowing that most of it will go unseen. Would I devoted my life to a work of art and not tell anyone about it? Why the wasted glory?

It is not a waste. We think the world that exists solely for our enjoyment and that the human audience is the only audience that matters. We forget ourselves. Our world was made by the love of God for the joy of God. The fact that human beings can share this joy is a great gift. It does not make our appreciation essential in order for a thing to have value. 

What about you? Does anyone take delight in you? Does anyone even see you? If no one notices you, do you exist? Yes. Emphatically, yes. 

You exist as an expression of God’s glory, made by the love of God for the joy of God. Even if every other human being ignores you, God doesn’t. When you express yourself as unfiltered you, you feel God’s pleasure in you. Like the high mountain lake, the wildflower, the mountain peak, you know why you exist. You are an expression of God’s glory. When you feel this, you know the meaning of your life, though you may not be able to put it in words. 

2. Point to sparkly things.

One effortless and satisfying way to shine requires nothing from you at all. You shine when you point at other shiny things. With nature, this is hard not to do this.