Strange and Stranger!
Posted in culture, not of this world, Patty's Posts, strangers and aliens 0 comments
When is the last time you felt like an alien in your sphere of influence? Have you ever felt out of place in a gathering where people were discussing, for example, a movie that you chose not to see because of questionable content?
I remember very vividly a time when my place of employment had a fire drill. I was standing outside with some other women (all believers) as we waited for the "all clear" to go back inside.
When the conversation turned to Coach handbags, the youngest in our group boasted about having SIX of them. I was tempted to ask her if she had any idea how many orphans she could sponsor with the money she spent, but I held my tongue. When she said her fiancee probably wouldn't want her to spend money like that once they got married, some other women in the group proceeded to tell her that if her husband could have HIS "toys," she was entitled to hers. I about threw up, and excused myself from the group -- which I realize now was not the correct thing to do. I was wrong to not confront my sisters. It wasn't so much the greed, but the fact that these older, supposedly more mature women were basically instructing the younger woman -- before she was even married -- in the clever art of deceiving her husband so that she can buy whatever she wants.
Don't get me wrong; there is nothing wrong with having nice things. But when we profess to know Jesus, and then boast about having the latest, most expensive, most stylish things, we have missed the boat somewhere. The Son of Man didn't have a place to even lay His head. He shunned possessions, choosing instead to invest in people. And if we follow Him, we need to have the same priorities.
A couple of years ago I complimented a young woman in our church after seeing her honeymoon pictures online. Though many of the photos were taken on the beach, she was dressed modestly in lovely sundresses or skirts. I made it a point to compliment her because many Christian women have embraced the world's standards with regard to their clothing. String bikinis seem as popular at Christian swim parties as they are at public beaches. We have forgotten that God exhorts us to be modest and not draw attention to ourselves -- let alone cause men to lust after our nearly naked bodies.
I think we forget sometimes Paul's admonition to the Romans: "Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think" (Romans 12:2, NLT).
It is not a bane or a curse to be different. On the contrary, we are called to be different. If our lives look no different than the rest of humanity, how can we hope to reach the lost for Christ?
0 comments:
Post a Comment