Our Place in the World

One thing we struggle with far too often is our place in the world. We forget--or we rebel--against the fact that we are different people. Yet, as John tells us, the world cannot know us. Their experiences, their treasures, and their values are not ours--nor should we want them to be. The attributes that they esteem and the attributes that we honor are not the same. They perceive us as "holier than thou, incapable of having "fun," unsophisticated, ignorant, boring, and the list goes on. We, sadly, cringe when we know that they view us as such people. We want their acceptance; we crave the world's approval; we hunger to be seen as one of them; we become consumed by the boastful pride of life. Instead of resting in God's view of us, we pursue the praise of men.
It is a destructive choice for them and for us. First, because it is the life of the believer that God uses to convince the world of their sin. When we become like them--in mind first, then inevitably in values, and then inescapably in behavior--we negatively affect the Spirit's ability to convict them of their sinfulness and thus their need for a Savior. Or as Jesus put it, we become "saltless salt." The most useless thing on the planet. The more the world's opinion matters to me, the less God's opinion matters to me. And so the Devil subtly leads me to invest my energies and resources in the system that is antichrist. My allegiance is slowly, like a person's hair turning gray one strand at a time, turned away from God to serve the gods of this world. And the farther down that road I go, the more easily I am persuaded to make just about any choice. What God says and what He wants me to be as His light to the world becomes irrelevant. We will do anything, betray anyone, shrug our shoulders at any consequences, and rationalize our rebellion with self-love. We will wallow in the pigpen, embrace the mud, and declare ourselves free--and clean. We become hedged in, walled in, ensnared by sin and self. It takes a bulldozer experience to free us.
We must be unafraid to be different. We must embrace the meekness and humility that the world despises. We must accept their insults, as Jesus said, as evidence of our relationship to Him, our likeness to Him. We must be unafraid to be labeled as a fool. And we must repay all of their choices with the choice to love them, to show them over and over again that we care for them. We must always respond with acts of kindness and compassion.
And then, one day, when we least expect it--and often from the one person we would never expect it from--will come the question: "What do you have that makes you so different?"