What kind of people should followers of Christ be?
Michael Card provides a compelling analogy.[i] Regarding the stars at night, he writes,
“In every season the view toward the south is the most dazzling and inspiring view. If you turn around and face north you will see a very different sky, a relatively dark one. No bright stars shine there, and few interesting nebulae or galaxies. Because of its position on the celestial sphere, this same set of constellations (the circumpolar constellations) rotates around an exceedingly dim, slightly green star. Polaris is its name. It is also called the North Star.
“When sailors or even astronauts are lost, they look for this dim little star to regain their sense of direction. It is always in the same spot, the tip of the northern axis that goes through the celestial sphere. It takes a bit of time to learn to find it. People who don’t know anything about the stars usually say, when it is pointed out to them for the first time, ‘Oh, is that the North Star? I thought it would be brighter.’”
Card claims that God’s people should serve in this world as “North Star people”:
“Sure, we might not seem as bright or as interesting as some. Seldom will people point their telescopes at us. And when they do they will no doubt respond, ‘Oh, I thought she was brighter than that.’ But as North Star people we can serve a deeper purpose. When people need us, we can be there for them, pointing the Way. While the world is spinning at a dizzying pace, we can remain grounded to the same spot, less dazzling but unmovable.”
[i] Michael Card, Scribbling in the Sand: Christ and Creativity (Downers Grove, IL: IVP, 2002), 71–72.
