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Christianity is becoming less and less popular these days. In the States, we may not be physically persecuted, but our coworkers, our neighbors, our families consider us those intolerant ones (even intolerable ones!), those closed-minded fools, those stuck-in-the-muds.

In the face of this, we're tempted to do one of two things: hide in our Christian groups, creating our own worlds where we can be understood and valued, or pretend we're just like everyone else.

Neither of which are Christ's response.

No, he called believers a city on a hill.

In Jesus' times, cities were built on hills. A weary traveler could look up and find the city without so much as a GPS system. For miles, he could see the city and find direction. Once inside the gates, the traveler would find rest and refreshment. He would find strength for his journey.

Christ said we're that city on a hill, providing direction to the traveler, providing rest, refreshment, and strength for his journey.

We can't hide our identity anymore than we can hide a city perched on a hill. Christ tells us to stand for all the world to see, not so we can look pretty, but so the world will see Christ and his glory, so the world can find direction, rest, and refreshment.

In our workplaces, our neighborhoods and our families, in the midst of persecution, we should be faucets, allowing God to pour out His water on a parched land. We do this by showing love, mercy and forgiveness where this is none. We do this by stretching out a hand of healing where there's gossip and one-up-manship. We do this by offering an embrace in a land of cliques and enemies.

God brings back this image of a city in the resurrection. "So he took me away in the Spirit to a huge, majestic mountain and showed me the holy city, Jerusalem , descending out of heaven from God. The city possesses the glory of God" (Revelation 21:10-11). Someday we will shine with God's glory, a beauty that will sparkle on a mountain. With this in mind, we practice every day being what we will one day fully be, not just a city on a hill, but a city on a mountain.

Learn more about this author, Heather Goodman.
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