Day 3975 of the 7 day Bible verse challeneg.

Acts 4:13 NIV

The company

Sometimes such forms as much of our identity as anything else, even ourselves. And that’s because the truth is that those around us, whether we know it or not, whether we like it or not, they seem to have quite a message to send as to who we are in regard to the influences and thus ideas and then ideals that we are so willing to be associated with. Those we’re surrounded by have an obvious effect on us as we’re bound to be drown with their words and beliefs as shown in the actions we see inside them.

What then do others see inside of us?

Sadly it seems mostly safe to say that most of us seem only to show the world around us, well, the world around us. We’ve each become what are little mirrors that exist to reflect the image of those we allow close enough to impact our image. It brings to mind the Pharisees’ noted stance upon Christ in that He sat with tax collectors and sinners and thus must be the same as, well, we’re both used to judging others by the company they keep and that because we’re pretty well aware that we’re basically nothing but a people of what’s an almost glaring herd-based mentality.

Indeed, doesn’t take much effort to see why He’s called the Shepherd and we’re referred to as everything from sheep to pigs.

The latter the matter seeming to most often line up best.

Why?

Because for so long we’ve allowed the filth in which this world wallows to be the same as we ourselves have swallowed seeking to become so consumed by the same things that everyone else is consumed by or consumed with so as to, hopefully, find it easier to make friends so as to find some sense of company that will agree to our being welcome in their number, wherein we always tend to find safety being of this herd mentality that we all seem to share.

And if you don’t believe me just pay attention the next time you’re out driving around or grabbing a bite to eat. I guarantee that what you’ll see at almost any red light or two-lane drive-thru is that one lane will fill up faster than the other. And why is that? Well, I theorize that it’s because we’re anymore so unsure of what we’re doing having always done wrong with what’s anymore a resolve to deny it that’s fading pretty rapidly that we just tend to follow whomever happens to be right in front of us assuming that they know what they’re doing as they just so happen to be slightly further ahead at the time.

This is by all accounts the obviousness of the obliviousness of the human mind.

It’s that we always look to others to lead and tend to select those to do so who seem to know more than we might, and that despite how we always seem to enjoy this act of pretending that we know what we’re doing and don’t even need such help.

We are a very interesting batch, are we not?

But whereas this can, and does, often lend to what is then a way of life in which our way of life is nothing but again a reflection of the life being lived by another, it can also become something that starts to set some of us apart as we find ourselves rather drifting further from the common until, while still ordinary, the world around us just can’t help but see that there’s something a little different about us.

Could be the words we say or the way we say them. Might be the way we walk and this ever so slight little bounce inside our steps. It could be a rare joy that just seems to catch someone completely off guard as it seems to shine in such a way that seems to say that it’s from another place. Could even be something so simple a slight nod of the head as if to acknowledge the presence, the existence of someone who’s otherwise become quite used to being ignored in what’s become a world filled with tiny little worlds of singular populations made popular by smartphone algorithms streaming into our faces an endless helping of everything we like.

Indeed, this world has chosen the path of such staunch selfishness that anymore even going to the store comes with a solemn if not heart-shattering reminder that if it weren’t for the presence of someone else, the world as a whole wouldn’t exist.

For unto most this place is theirs and the rest of us are just little ants that get in the way.

And, well, maybe that’s a good thing.

Maybe that’s why we’re still here.

Maybe it’s all to get in the way of those walking away, running away, falling away from He who is the Way to what is the Life that ain’t none of us going to find without the kind of bold humility that sets some of us apart, a growing few completely, as those who are so ordinary, so normal, so unimpressive and thus unworthy of attention and yet just different enough to cause a curiosity to start welling up in those with eyes that might be interested in maybe trying to see if there is something different out there.

Something like Jesus maybe.

And in fact, though many here would never agree to be so interested in something, someone so unpopular as that, I personally believe that there are a great and growing many who are, like me, growing quite alarmed, worried, concerned, confused, angered even as to what this world has become and is becoming. I believe that everyone, or almost everyone, can in fact see that things aren’t as they should be, that we aren’t as we should be.

And why is this what I believe?

Because nobody’s happy. Nobody seems confident anymore. Nobody has much peace about them. None seem all that able to show love, mercy, compassion. Rather most folks seem to enter unto every day ready for war to wage at the slightest hint of an opportunity to either be offended or cause offense. We hear this song being sung in the tune of car horns blaring and the nightly news always there telling us of yet another tragedy about which all of the population is already quite well aware thanks again to smart phones always ready to keep us up to date on the unfoldings of a world unraveling so that we can always stand at the very cusp of the every outrage.

Because we love being outraged. We love to rage. We again love to wage what is a war fought in words and wounds that we refuse to heal or be healed as they instead form for us the very basis of our every apparently justified reason for hating life as much as we do.

Not that we’ll ever just come right out as say that we do as, well, that would both sound bad, raise some alarms, maybe sort of contradict the message we’re usually sending all about how awesome we are and thus our life is, and might even have some friendly folks in gleaming white coats start asking us some questions such as if we’ve ever thought of harming ourselves.

Had a nurse ask me that once after having accidentally cut my wrist helping a friend move. Definitely a really weird thing to be looked at with such a strange blend of kindness and pity and worry.

Simply because those are things that we just don’t seem to see anymore.

Why?

Because, again, everyone around us has just chosen to all but square off into their own little worlds that are curated with everything they like and filled then with only those who look like them, live like them, love the chance to always be there telling them how great they are, how strong they are, how special and unique and brave they are. And we eat it up because, well, that’s what we’ve been trying to tell you!

That we’re awesome. That we’re special. That we are God’s gift to society and thus should be seen as the royalty, the nobility, the novelty that we are.

Except that there’s nothing novel, new, different about us at all. And, well, this is again seen maybe best by the company we keep as we usually gather around us only those who are like us in some way as those who are different do different things than we enjoy, say things that we might not agree with, believe things we might not want to even imagine. Indeed, the surest way to figure out who someone really is is to look at what they refuse to associate with.

Tells you the other half of the story left unfilled by those they do hang around.

The two combine together to tell whomever may be interested in learning more about us just what all they’ll find if they do.

And, well, what then would they learn?

What messages are we showing the world in the actions we undertake, the patterns we repeat, the words that we at this point pretty much only regurgitate in what’s become a life being lived in such things as retweets and shares? Who are we telling the world around us that we are inside the things we do, the company we keep, the stuff we say and the hate we seep?

Indeed, this has become something of a worry in regard to so many of these church services we see. Just gonna be blunt in that they seem to look a whole lot like the world. So many of them have so much production and amusement and entertainment that one should maybe start to wonder why. I mean, yeah, I understand that in order to catch some fish you’ve gotta go to where the fish are. But friends, the point of fishing is to pull the fish out from where they are, not just end up swimming with them.

And, well, that’s what both the Pharisees didn’t see, couldn’t see, and yet the crowds spoken of here apparently could.

For again the Pharisees saw that Jesus hung around with sinners and, understanding how to judge someone by the company they keep, they thus felt justified inside their belief that He was nothing but one of them as well. And yet, judging by the same standard as is measured in the company being kept, those who saw Peter and John stand bold upon their faith in the same Christ as they stood before the leaders of the time started to realize that maybe there might be something different about the company they’d kept.

Because there was something in fact so different about them that they’d even just recently healed a man who had been lame, doing so in the very same Name as that they continued to proclaim even despite the rulers and leaders of the time demanding they don’t.

Something they continued to do knowing that it’s always better to obey the Father than the fallen as obeying the fallen is again akin to going fishing and only ending up swimming.

Which is a truly horrible way to catch fish as even they’re smart enough to realize that we don’t look like fish and have to keep going back to the surface to catch our breath.

Something that so many don’t seem interested in doing anymore as the vast majority here just seem content to continue drowning on content catered to their every carnal craving as inspired by a community so confused as to apparently believe that life is about our being so served to.

It’s not, and, well, perhaps that’s yet another pretty simple way to live as if we’ve something unique to say about what’s another way in which to live this life that isn’t probably going to be seen as right by those afraid of life but yet can’t be denied.

Because, well, no matter what this world may try, turns out that no amount of darkness can extinguish a light that God has said should shine.

And, being referred to as cities on this hill of a world racing toward hell, we’ve both plenty of darkness against which to shine and just enough light having chosen to live reflecting the Christ that there’s simply no possible chance that we can’t make a difference that might inspire inside of someone else a curiosity as to whether this Jesus is maybe more than this world has long opted to insist.

Maybe He’s worth hearing out. Maybe His Word’s worth a read. Maybe a bended knee and broken prayer isn’t such a fearful place to be or thing to try.

Maybe we’re really bad a living this life and need as much mercy and salvation as He’s hopefully still willing to give despite how long we seem to have lived keeping company with those who continue mocking and doubting and debating and denying anything that they don’t want to understand simply because it’s different and different is scary as it might so happen to inspire the change we fear as much the life we hate.

And my friends, we do hate life!

And we see this inside how we live it anymore. For down here it’s all war and worry. It’s cell phone addictions and internet algorithms that keep us coming back for more of everything not in any way new or needed. It’s lust streamed through every screen we can find. It’s greed sought in serving our bottom line. It’s gluttony met in all-you-shouldn’t-eat food buffets that are sadly seen as such challenges that now we’ve people misusing medications because they’ve heard they can help shed some shame.

It’s partisan lines and party crimes played out in real time every time we go outside to what is a world that for some reason just seems to love setting itself on fire.

And yet all of this affords for us such an ease in standing out and seeming different that we too barely have to do anything at all.

I was literally just talking with God last night about this very thing. How I want to be different, to look different, walk different, talk different so that the world around me can see that I am different and maybe wonder why. Because, as we talked about in yesterday’s post, back before our being called unto this life spent following Christ, we weren’t anything special. We weren’t considered wise or important or influential in the opinions and outlooks of this world.

Rather we were fishermen or tax collectors or trash men or mail carriers or delivery truck drivers. We were teachers and athletes and writers and kids pulling all nighters trying to cram for tests that they wanted to ace so as to earn their place in that place they wanted to be to make the difference they felt they could maybe make.

We were, we are just plain old ordinary people who, for some reason, just seem to stand out more and more as the world goes further and further in the direction it’s chosen.

How?

Because such things as class, dignity, general modesty and even the slightest twinge of morality are sure to be noticed by those who are still looking for such things in what’s instead a world that’s become known for the company it keeps which is kept with the sinful, the shame-ridden, the guilt-carrying, the hope-losing, the hate-loving, the dark-chasing, the filth-watching, the greed-having.

The godless in other words.

Indeed, this world is growing increasingly godless as is seen in everything from how folks dress to the words they say to the things they do to complete strangers on the streets or in their cars.

We are watching a world fall apart!

And well, what better backdrop for us to both do something about it and that by likely doing almost nothing at all other than living as if we don’t care to belong here?

Honestly, how much quicker could we make a splash that might surprise than were we to do something as if we didn’t care what people thought? What if we were in fact so bold in our faith that we laughed at the “suggestion” that we “leave this way, get off this path, and stop confronting us (the world) with the Holy One of Israel!”?

Indeed, what if we did continue confronting this world with the power of Christ as seen inside of how we love those around us, how we seek to serve rather than be served, how we become so bold in our belief that we elate at the chance to be brought before those who think of themselves as rulers and leaders and whatever other powerful title people love to wield and use instead His Word as our shield as if we know that nothing they do can undo anything He did?

What if we did as He calls us to and seek to live holy lives in these unholy times?

What would the world come to know of the company we’ve been keeping should they start seeing that we’re not backing down in fear or worry of who we’re learning are but people the same as us but yet nothing like us because we’ve become the adopted children of the Living God and thus having nothing to fear but letting Him down?

You can bet that some, maybe still not many, but some might come to become curious as to this boldness that becomes in us a fire that consumes and inspires us to welcome being crucified by the world because this world and its ways have long since been crucified in us.

And no, there might not be all that many willing to see such blatant difference. But friends, there are some. Why else would any of us still be here if not because His patience is achieving for us a little more time to either come to find that He’s found us or to then from there strive to help others come to find the same?

Indeed, we may be but ordinary people as that is truly exactly what we are. But here’s the thing that we need to always remember: There’s something immeasurably amazing when ordinary people do unordinary things, extraordinary things. Why? Because ordinary people can always do what’s considered by ordinary people to be ordinary, everyday kinds of things.

This world watches what’s become ordinary every single day.

And so if we do something different than what this world’s allowed to become ordinary, common, normal, then you can bet we’ll stand out.

And someone else just might start wondering why we’re willing to risk being the ones that don’t blend in with what is a world in which blending in is the greatest hope held by most.

Indeed, let’s live to show those with eyes to see that there is a greater hope that is still being held out just a little longer so as to let a few more seek His shelter before it all just falls apart.

#LeaveNoSoulUntold