One of the struggles that everyone seems to have is the tension between finding and expressing your individuality while also feeling as if you belong to some sort of community. It’s always especially interesting as you see groups of teenagers all dressing the same weird ways together so they can show how they are different. Craig has been coming back to something over and over for the last several weeks and that is the need for us as Christians to be different. It’s not hard to see that the world has crazy ideas of success and for what is okay (i.e. A former governor using the corruption for which he has been accused as a launching point for book deals and the reality TV spotlight). We should not look like the rest of the world, but should live in a way that is transformed by us striving to live as Jesus would live in our shoes. So what does that mean and how can you really do that while still connecting to and reaching the world that we are supposed to be different from in a way that connects them with the love God has for them?

My simple answer is, “I’m still figuring it out.” But I think that when we look at the life of Jesus in the Bible and some of the things that the Bible has to say about how a follower of Christ lives in the world, there are some good starts. Even as you read through the Old Testament stories as God is telling Israel the ways in which they will serve him, you see God telling the people to be different from those around them. Many times God says, “I am holy and you shall be a holy people.” Holy, set apart for a purpose, different. Holy in the middle of it all, practicing love, justice, humility, and living to please God. God tells his people that living this way will not only lead to blessing and fulfillment for them, but will serve as a message to others that God is good.

So I guess maybe being holy doesn’t always mean that we are withdrawn into a holy quarantine, but as we live in the world, we seek godly things and set his will as our measure for what to do since there are many things that can be justified with the world’s logic, but not all things are wise in the sight of God.

How have you engaged the struggle to be different while still belonging and connecting with the world?

- Aaron

This entry was posted on Tuesday, February 16th, 2010 at 2:11 pm and is filed under General. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.