Not of this world

It is hard to believe it has been over 8 months since I last posted a single thought on life and Christianity. It’s not because I have not had them; I have just struggled to find time to put pen to paper, so to speak. It’s quite fitting that I should return from such an absence after 8 months since, in Christian numerology, the number 8 is the number of new beginnings. Perhaps this is just that – a new beginning.

I just returned from a 3-day women’s retreat at Calvary Chapel Murrieta Conference Center. While I have been on missions trips and participated in other traditional Christian activities such as conferences and studies this was the first retreat I have ever attended since giving my heart to the Lord. I was not certain what to expect going into the retreat but I have since discovered that I apparently had a better conception of what would happen during than after. I expected to feel invigorated, refreshed and on fire for the Lord. And I am all these things. However, I find that I am also feeling rather removed and separate from the world. I think that, perhaps for the first time, I truly understand what it is to be “not of this world”.

I returned to my job (at the time) feeling so completely out of place in such a secular environment. And I worked for a Catholic organization! After spending 3 days surrounded by women who know and love the Lord it is difficult to transition back into a world with such a myopic focus; one in which God is absent and business is king. I find I want to run and hide lest the glow of spiritual transformation be drained from me. But if that is what God had intended then He would not have said in John 17:15-18 “I’m not asking you to take them out of the world, but to keep them safe from the evil one. They are not part of this world any more than I am. Make them pure and holy by teaching them your words of truth. As you sent me into the world, I am sending them into the world.”

So here I sit praying that God will protect me from the influence of the world in which I live and work and give me the strength, conviction and zeal to win others to the Lord while I am in this world BUT not of this world. God, let us be a light and an image of Christ to those who do not know Him and have not accepted the salvation You so freely give. Amen.