Previous Challenge Entry (Level 3 - Advanced)
Topic: Begin - Being - Binge (08/21/25)
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TITLE: HER UNEXPECTED JOURNEY | Previous Challenge Entry
By Evelyn Alexander
08/28/25 -
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Liora was feeling driven to better understand why Jesus told the crowd, you ARE salt and light, instead of telling them they can BECOME so. She also couldn’t stop wondering what it would look like when we’re being the kind of salt and light He was talking about.
It hadn’t taken her long to understand why Jesus used the analogy of salt and light. But the strong feeling she was missing something important continued to nag at her. So, what can it be? she kept asking herself, as it slowly became a prayer.
Thankfully for Liora’s peace of mind, seemingly out of nowhere the answer came. It started forming with the thought, “You haven’t looked up the word, ‘be’, as in BE-ing salt and light."
Quickly doing so, Liora was surprised to find this simple word was rich with meaning. While reading, suddenly the proverbial light bulb flashed bright in her mind. There it was! What she had been missing. Among other things, the word, “BE” relates to our character – our attitude!
Her answer continued to grow and take shape. She began to understand: It’s not so much what we DO that makes us salt and light … it’s what we are BEING! It’s practicing a character trait so much, it changes us from the inside out. It’s like we become the embodiment of that character trait. It’s like Jesus said, it’s what we ARE.
A vague memory then slowly resurfaced that drove the insight home. While still a young child, someone had said, “That person is so kind, they’re like kindness itself.” Liora saw the connection. The person they were talking about was like the personification of kindness. Kindness in the flesh.
Little did she know this fresh insight was going to take her on an unexpected journey of discovery into the world of simply being, and that it would take her five years to complete!
The more Liora discovered, the more she wanted to share what she was discovering with others, for she had been a growing Christian her whole life, but never felt as free in her Christian walk as she did now. And the more she studied “being” in Christ, to simply BE His salt and reflect His light, the more joy she experienced.
Her hope was that others could be refreshed in their Christian faith too.
Liora then took the plunge and started writing. But she kept feeling the need to make this study different. Since she had a career in a type of marketing, resource development for a nonprofit agency, she had noticed that the world of social media had changed our current generations’ way of gaining information. They also had a shorter attention span than previous generations. She then accepted the challenge of developing something different.
She was now staring at her computer screen, while recalling how much she had struggled to get to this point. But her persistence paid off. As last! … It was done. Liora had a good first draft. And the two friends who reviewed it for her really liked it! One, that especially touched her heart, shared how she had stopped going to church years before, but only recently had begun feeling the need to get back to her spiritual roots, but was having trouble knowing how to, when my email with the PDF attached arrived. She read it, and was thrilled. For it helped her get realigned with Him.
Liora’s first big step was to call it a “Guidebook” instead of a Bible Study. And now she was debating with herself about what it’s final title should be: Shake the Salt, and Shine the Light? Being? or simply BE …! Continuing to stare at her blinking cursor, she decided. “BE…!” it is! … with the tag line she had already wrestled through on, “…for you were made to shine in the darkness.
She read it out loud. “BE, for you were made to shine in the darkness.” She liked it, and sent up a quick prayer that it would catch the eye of others too, and that its contents would help them in the area they needed it as well.
Clicking on the link to convert it to a PDF, with a smile, she thought, “Now I just need to find a way to get it published!”
This is a mostly true story.
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