Set Apart

A memory came to mind this morning as I sat rocking baby Tru. In the few minutes of quiet I had before I joined the children at breakfast, I turned this memory over in my mind, mulling over its meaning, the significance.

When I was a freshman in college, I had one foot in the world, one foot in God's kingdom: I was living like a Christian when it suited me and partying the rest of the time. I would go to the Campus Crusade for Christ meetings on Thursdays and from there head straight out to the parties . . . and continue to party the rest of the weekend. Sure I felt guilty, but I also wanted to have "fun" and didn't see any reason to stop. I went to church on Sunday evenings (for obvious reasons), finishing my weekend of revelry off with God again for good measure--just in time to repent and start all over again the next week. An R.A. who lived in my dorm would drive a bunch of us to church. One time in particular stands out in my mind and it was this memory that gave me some food for thought today.

On our way to church this particular Sunday evening the older student had the radio playing in her car. She was playing a local secular station, the very station that I listened to all the time. The song that was playing on the radio was by Nine Inch Nails, a song full of expletives and a song that is totally wicked even by non-Christian standards. As we drove along and chatted I was totally distracted by this song, but the girl driving didn't even notice. I began to wonder if she didn't notice because she was used to this type of music, and this song in particular, or was it simply that she wasn't paying attention. I surmised from what I had seen of the rest of her life that she simply didn't notice what was on the radio. But I did. I was distracted to the point that I had an extremely difficult time paying attention to our conversation. A dozen or more times I almost spoke up and said something about turning off the radio, turning off this song, but a dozen or more times I said nothing. It was super uncomfortable for me and I was the one living like a non-Christian, not her. So why did it bug me in her car this day?

Here are my thoughts, some 17 years later:

I think that I was uncomfortable because I held her, and Christians in general, to a higher standard than non-Christians. It was okay for my other friends to listen to that song, but for a Christian, well that was just wrong. I wanted her to be good, to turn that song off, to be set apart from the world. I wanted her to look different. Although I considered it okay for me to listen to that station I didn't think it was okay for her. The difference was that I knew I wasn't living like a Christian but she was and I knew even in my state of worldly rebellion that Christians should live differently and their lives should reflect that.

And that is what struck me today. We, as Christians, WILL be judged by non-Christians by the degree to which we don't that turn away fom the world's siren song which constantly attempts to lure us in. I have even heard non-Christians say with sarcasm, "He says he's a Christian," meaning that you wouldn't be able to tell from his life! Surely we should look different than the world. Intentionally.

I once brought a friend and her boyfriend to church, (the boyfriend wasn't a Christian), and he was totally turned off. Why? Was it because it was church? No. It was because it didn't seem like church to him! It was too much like the world! He knew that church should be a place that IS different from the world, and when it wasn't it had no attraction. If he could get the same worldly experience outside the church as inside, then why join the church?

I was just talking to a friend about this the other day. She told me that when her husband and her came to Christ they were also turned off by the churches that imitated the world! They were leaving behind the world!--they didn't want to join a Christian version of it (which coming from someone who was once in the world seems TOTALLY DORKY to most non-Christians--just being honest.) They wanted a NEW world. They wanted something different. They aren't the only ones. Another friend of mine, when she came to Christ, rejected all of the seeker-friendly, "relevant", cool churches in favor of something reverent, something set-apart from the world, something anti-world, not a good version of the world. Our lives should NOT be just a cleaned-up version of the world. They should be different! If we say we are Christians, but the only thing that is different is we don't swear and we go to church, but we listen to the same music, read the same books, watch the same t.v. shows and movies, have the same family life, attitudes toward children, marriage roles, schools, clothes, spending habits, view on women's roles, obsession with appearances (our clothes, bodies, houses, etc.) and vote the same, then what is the point!? It was a turn-off for me big-time when I was essentially a non-Christian and it is still a turn-off to non-Christians. Non-Christians expect us to be different and they will judge us and see the hypocrisy. I did. Being different is not legalism--legalism is when you try to earn your way to God through your good works--it's just holy living. The world knows it, so why don't Christians?

Now, I know that I have a long way to go still. God has had to do a work in me, let me tell you. It was often like him peeling back my fingers that gripped the world so tightly, I didn't want to let go. But He has been so patient and gentle with me.

Living Biblically will make us seem like fools to the world, but people that's the point. But, let's be the RIGHT KIND of fools for Christ, not the fool the world thinks Christians are when we try to imitate the world simply by cleaning things up a bit, packaging it differently, and then selling it by another name. That's just plain foolishness.

In Christ, Laura