Furthermore, I was fresh out of a homeschool bubble that had kept me completely isolated from anything worldly whatsoever. My three years of high school were filled with awkward, religious angst as I tried to figure out how to live with normal people.
It took God a long time to pull me off my high horse, but He did.
Mostly, He reminded me that sin is sin and that we’re all stained together. His grace is the only thing keeping me from being the worst of sinners.
Now, I look back and wonder if the isolation helped me at all, and I wonder why good Christian people continue to believe that running from society will keep them safe when Jesus intended us to do just the opposite. He sent out His disciples to engage their culture, to help reshape it by their actions toward each other and the nonbelievers with which they worked and lived.
The only thing that’s changed since the days of the first church is time. We now find ourselves in a culture much like that which surrounded the apostles—a decadent, sensual, pleasure-driven society with humanistic morals. Yet somehow we believers think that stocking up on guns, homeschooling our children and completely separating ourselves from the world will change it for the better.
I think we need to be reminded that the foolish servant buried his talents out of fear rather than using them and was promptly cast out for his actions. We separate ourselves because we are afraid of sin, but we forget that Jesus found the Samaritan woman in the very place where a good Jew should never have gone. We forget that He ate with sinners and religious people alike.
I’m not against homeschooling. I think it can provide a better education that anything public schools can offer. Nor am I against buying guns; by all means, protect yourself. But don’t run away from the world out of fear. I’m not saying to get all liberal and go bar-hopping. I’m saying that we should have some faith in the Spirit that’s inside of us to help us shine His light in the dark places.
When your unsaved co-workers ask you to go out with them on a Friday night, offer to be their designated driver. You’d be surprised at how much drunk people open up about their lives and let you talk to them about Jesus. Don’t sit alone and read your Bible at lunch when you’re at work. Talk to somebody about Sunday’s football game and make some friends. If they trust you, they’ll let you in, and if they let you in, they might just let Jesus in too.
