What exactly is the point?

I was at dinner with some of my friends last night and, while the conversation was jumping around from topic to topic, we touched on the fact that some of us have been friends since we were 3 years old. Now, I don't know how often that really happens in life, but I get the feeling that it is pretty rare outside of the deep-South, small-town, never-get-out parts of the world. And it is such an amazing gift to have friends like this, that have known me forever and watched me grow and have grown with me; who can make fun of my life-long eccentricities and my awkward stages. But I am starting to realize something as I reflect on all that.

Basically, I have had the same friends and the same types of friends my whole life. I couldn't feel more incredibly blessed, but I also feel a little guilty. I have never been out of my bubble. I have grown up and become the person I have because that is how everyone around me was. I have chosen to follow Christ because I never really had another option. This summer was the first time I have ever been out of my Christian bubble, and I saw the world for what it really was. In the world, your friends don't hold you accountable for your mistakes, oftentimes they justify and encourage them...and you start to do the same. I realized that there was another way to live besides the pursuing righteousness way. I realized that I wasn't as strong as I thought that I was. I realized that the world is not Perimeter Christian School or Christ Community Church or Phi Slam or Bridgewater Neighborhood or even anything close to the amazing community I had built up around me. The world is tempting. The world does have fulfilling relationships that lead you to places you never thought you would go. I realized that I had never lived in the world, and have never really chosen living in Christ over living in the world...because it had never truly been an option for me. Christians hang out with Christians. Christians best friend's are Christians. Christians marry Christians. Christians have Christian children and then send them to a Christian school where they can meet, befriend, and marry other Christians.

And I am a product of this thing we call faith. I am a product of this overwhelming grace that saved my parents and my friends and myself from death and eternal isolation from God. But what exactly is the point of MY life? I could go through my life never having to deal with the world again, except for a few choice mission trips that add to my life experiences but don't strengthen my faith in light of anything real. In order to have an effect on the world, I have to be in it. In order to truly glorify God, I should probably get out from under the covers of my Christian life and face the thing that scares me the most: the fact that I want the world. I could go on working with Christians and hanging out with Christians, but then it isn't a choice, is it? It isn't a choice to follow God if all of your friends are doing it. We are called to LIVE IN THIS WORLD. That is figurative, not literal. Obviously, we all live in the same literal world, but the place I have grown up and the relationships that have grown in that fertile community is completely different than the world everyone else lives in. And basically, what good are we doing staying in it? Yeah, we are strengthening the body and semi-strengthening our own souls, but we are never testing our faith, we are never living examples because no one around us needs to be convinced of God's love and grace.

I guess all I can say is that in order to truly know what you believe, you have to be around people that think something different. You can't discover who you are around the people who have molded and helped form your opinions and ideas. I was surprised by how weak my faith actually is when I went away from the people who daily bolster and encourage my beliefs.

So what is the point of your being a Christian when you aren't living in the world? I don't think that is how God called me to live. I can't surround myself with people who make me feel safe and constantly encourage the things I say and believe, because then I will get weak and comfortable. Weak and comfortable is not a good recipe for a Christian...and I think everyone knows that. I think that we are specifically called to be strong and uncomfortable. I think we are specifically called to live IN this world but not to be OF this world.

You live and you make your choices about your friends and your work, but don't be surprised when you find yourself around a lot of people who are offended by your ideas and subtly tempt you with things you have never experienced before. Only when you truly realize your own weakness will you realize the point of your faith anyways.

Soli Deo Gloria