Blueprints.

One night, rather recently, I was hanging out with a group of friends who aren’t the best Christians or really even Christians at all.  I still have a lot of friends from before my true dedication to Christ and I was in an environment completely outside of my new found comfort zone.  My instinctive thought was that I needed to distance myself from this, to get away from all the negative influences so that I wouldn’t risk slipping back into old habits.

Shame on me.

Jesus, time and again, is caught hanging out with all the “wrong” people.  His culture was no different than the culture we live in today.  The “religious” people of the 1st century were no different than the people of the 21st century.  They, just like us, had a cultural predisposition that people of God were to separate themselves from the world around them. We build up good morals on the outside while keeping our heart focused on things other than Christ.

Our culture is tearing Christianity to shreds.  Not just the secular culture, but our very own faith’s culture.

I feel like, with my past being what it is, that I am probably more liberal about people’s past and current struggles than just about anyone you will meet.  If Christ can rescue me and transform my heart after the mess I’ve been through then He can save others, too.  Sadly enough, I still allowed myself to believe the ridiculous notion that I have to seclude myself from anything that isn’t what I believe it should be.

As I said in an earlier post, this is the type of Christianity that gives Christ a bad name.

I get sick to my stomach when I turn on the TV and see preacher after preacher complaining about how terrible our world is and how sinful and depraved we are.

Yes, the world is sinful.  Yes, the world is depraved.  We are far, far away from the world that God saw was “good.”  That said, I’ve got a crazy idea:

How about Christians get out and start living their Christian lives in today’s culture instead of making our own little clique?

We have to, at some point, stop putting ourselves into a bubble where we are more concerned with what we can’t do and instead look at what Christ did do.  Do you know how much time I wasted trying to put together a blueprint of how my Christian life should be?

Let’s stop bogging ourselves down with garbage like:

• Is one beer okay?  Two?  Alright, if I have four beers I will only be a little buzzed, but not drunk, so I should be safe from God being mad at me.
• What is considered a cuss word?
• It doesn’t technically say in the Bible that smoking cigarettes is a sin, so…
• Porn is less of a sin than sex because technically I’m not involving anyone else.

Look, if you’re questioning it, stay away from it.  Don’t try and skate around the rules; don’t try and find loopholes to try and beat the system.  It’s a waste of time, and it’s not really the point anyway.

Instead, let’s focus on things that are important:

• Ask, “How can I glorify God in my life and by my actions today?”
• Thank God for what you have.  Even if it isn’t much, there are people far worse off.
• Ask, “Who in my life doesn’t know Christ and how can I relate to them in order to help them find Him?”
• Watch for opportunities to show grace.  It can be something small like holding the door for someone, or something larger like calling someone you’ve wronged and making things right.
• Set aside time to surround yourself in things that strengthen your passion and appreciation for God.  For some people it’s music, for some it’s art, for some it’s watching a sunrise.  We all have something that lights our souls on fire, find out what yours is.
• Look for places around you that are obviously void of Christ and/or Christians.  These are places where you can go “fit in,” while simultaneously standing out from the crowd by being like Christ while you’re there.  This is a hard thing to do at times, but it might be Christ’s largest example to follow.

Christians, can we do this?  Can we stop spending our time trying to be “good” and pointing out others’ flaws?  Can we, instead, focus on what Christ calls us to be?  Can we stop complaining about the culture we live in and start working on ways to thrive in it?

The earth is God’s.  There is no secular world and Christian world.  There is one world and we have to live in it.  Either you’re going to stand on the sidelines and keep making your checklists and trying to formulate the perfect blueprint, or you’re going to go out and represent Christ.

Matthew 5:14 – You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house.