My recent contemplations are regarding how easy it is to confuse sanctification with sterilization, being set apart without being segregated. As believers, I think it is so easy to be scared of the world and withdraw into our holy huddle where we feel safe. I know it's something I struggle with, and as a mom, my protective instincts toward my children war with the desire to reach out.
We read in Matthew 5:14-16:
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. In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
But where does a lighted lamp do the most good? In a room where there are lots of other lights already turned on? Or in a dark room?
I have a friend, a wonderful Godly woman, who was not raised in a Christian home. Her parents divorced when she was 3. Her mom struggled with alcoholism. She lived during her high school years with her dad. During that time she became close friends with a girl in a strong Christian family. Just before her senior year in high school, her dad was going to move from the small town where they lived. Her friend, a year older, was headed to college. And the parents of this friend invited her to live with them so she could finish her high school years without moving. And during that year, this mom loved her unconditionally, prayed for her, and ultimately led her to the Lord.
I wonder. . . .would I be that mom? Or would I encourage my daughter not to be friends with this girl because of the negative influence she might have on my daughter? I don't think I like the deep-down honest answer.
Remember this parable in Luke 18:9-14?
To some who were confident of their own righteousness and looked down on
everybody else, Jesus told this parable:
"Two men went up to the temple to pray, one a Pharisee and the other a tax collector.
The Pharisee stood up and prayed about himself: 'God, I thank you that I am not like other men—robbers, evildoers, adulterers—or even like this tax collector.
I fast twice a week and give a tenth of all I get.'
"But the tax collector stood at a distance. He would not even look up to heaven, but beat his breast and said, 'God, have mercy on me, a sinner.'
"I tell you that this man, rather than the other, went home justified before God. For everyone who exalts himself will be humbled, and he who humbles himself will be exalted."
Ouch. I've been there. More than I care to admit. Just yesterday I was driving and pulled up behind a car with an absolutely offensive bumper sticker in the back window. My first reaction was one of disgust - and yes, judgment - and then I felt the Holy Spirit prompting me, "Why don't you instead pray for that person, that he will have an encounter with God?" Believe me, that was so far out of my normal way of thinking that I knew it was coming from above!
One thing I noticed about that definition of sterilize: it has the effect of rendering something fruitless and powerless, and causes it to be free of living organisms. That seems rather contradictory to the life Christ calls us to.
Finally, here is a song that was touching enough when I heard it, but seeing the video, especially the part with the mom and the little girl, convicted me to my core:
What about you? Do you struggle with this too? How do you find the balance of being in the world but not of the world and ministering to the world?
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