4. What does it look like to be in the world but not of the world?

 2/27/21 - 3/7/21

“You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled underfoot. You are the light of the world. A town built 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 others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

 Matthew 5:13-16

https://biblereasons.com/not-of-this-world/

 Hey guys!

 It has been a minute! Sorry for not posting last Sunday… Turns out when they say recovery is 6-8 weeks after Gallbladder removal, they are not exaggerating. I am getting there; it’s just a slower process than I expected.

This is the toughest series of blogs I’ve ever written. I knew it would be a challenge, but I didn’t realize it would be this hard. I struggle to feel like I have anything valuable to add to the conversation of faith and that I am not qualified to share. I want to be transparent about that as I go forward! I often battle an internal critic, especially when it comes to topics that mean a lot to me. But I will continue to pray and keep on trying- I ask for your grace as I do that. Anyways, let’s get started for today!

What does it look like to be in the world but not of the world?

For those of you who aren’t very familiar with a lot of church lingo like I wasn’t until I moved to Nashville, this is a popular phrase. And also, a very complicated one to live out. I find that we as Christians are generally not great with grey areas and this one happens to be a particularly tricky one to navigate. And it is not new to us to feel this way! Back when Jesus walked the earth, the Jewish people were also split in this regard. Some left to form an alternate society away from outside influence, thinking that it was better to be isolated than tainted by secular culture. Others became overly religious with the idea that following a strict regime of rules would lead to salvation and God’s favor.

I have Christian friends that didn’t experience academic environments with anyone that wasn’t white up until college. I have Christian friends that were only exposed to straight people up until college. I have Christian friends that weren’t allowed to listen to certain artists or genres of music, watch certain TV shows, go to concerts and a variety of other places and things while growing up. 

My mom was raised in a household with too much structure and my dad was raised in a household devoid of any, so the two of them together equated to me living life much more drenched in popular culture than the standard Christian girl. Which is something I find myself to be rather thankful for.

While my childhood school was faith based, they mostly taught me about the Lutheran denomination and the time I spent there during the week didn’t equate to my overall experience culturally. But it was enough to give me a taste of both worlds! Looking back now, I feel like I had a fair dose of both American Christianity and secular lines of thinking. I grew up listening to Evanescence, The Dixie Chicks (now, The Chicks), Buckcherry, Alice in Chains, P!nk, 3 Doors Down, and too many others to name. The only Christian artists I really knew about for a long time were Amy Grant, Mercy Me, and Britt Nicole. I guess my point is not so much music specifically, but just that going from my public high school in a melting pot like Florida to a private Christian university in Nashville, TN felt like going from the world into a small bubble.

I absolutely hated that my freshman year and felt judged often for the clothes I would wear or my lax opinions on certain topics. I eventually got past the surface of those reactions and gained a greater understanding of Southern culture by the time I got to graduation and ended up enjoying a majority of my time at Lipscomb. But I still saw as they struggled to navigate what it looked like to be in the world but not of the world and fall on their faces a few times. Whether it came to sex education, racism, gender equality, or a variety of other topics, it was painful to watch the institution that was shaping me miss the mark.

What I don’t want to do here today is point fingers or make this blog about any specific place/event. I am just as imperfect as the next person and we live in a culture that is hurting in ways beyond my personal capability to truly understand. And even when people or institutions mess up, it doesn’t invalidate them. I believe that Lipscomb University is a place filled with many amazing minds that I will forever be grateful to have learned from. I merely mention it as an example.

Even secular institutions struggle to navigate morality; what is harmful versus what is helpful, what will best shape the future versus what will hurt it. Regardless of your God, religion, or viewpoints in general, this is a very universal human struggle. What is right and what is wrong? And how do we figure it out? None of us have a universal answer.

Every country has a different government system, a different policy on health care, a different view of work ethic, a different approach to crime, such and so on. In a lot of ways, we are all just searching for the methods that best serve everyone. And no matter how hard we try, none of us do it perfectly. Nations rise and fall all of the time, regardless of their initial intentions. So, for those who claim to follow Jesus Christ, what does it look like for us to live a countercultural lifestyle without being oblivious to the world around us, without looking down on popular culture, and still without blending in to where they don’t recognize us as different at all? Talk about a thin rope to balance on!

This is a topic that I will not be able to fit into a single blog, but I will do the best I can for today. 

Tips to living a countercultural lifestyle that points towards Christ:

1.     Having a faith community that is grounded in God’s word before all else.

a.     Community alone is not enough, and neither is reading the Bible without anyone to process it with. We need both things in tandem to not only gain Heavenly wisdom, but to keep ourselves in check. We don’t want to sacrifice what God intends for us to appease the masses or be so rigid that we completely push away those who don’t agree. Finding the line that says, “God wants you where you are, but never leaves you where he finds you.” takes consistent effort. Because culture changes all the time, ideas come and go, popular opinions fade in and out like fashion trends. And if we as believers stop growing, evolving, learning, and setting that example by the lives we live, no one around us is going to notice or come to us as they wrestle with their own ideas. If we stop finding ways to speak into whatever the hot topics of today are, then we are not helping ourselves or anyone around us. 

b.     This doesn’t mean we need to be perfect. It means we are called to take a stance of humility, to embrace an open-minded mentality, and to lean on trusted community in Christ as we jointly work to navigate a messy world. 

2.     Staying open-minded and embracing humility. 

a.     As I just stated previously, these qualities are vital to navigating the world through a Christian lens. If there is a super popular movie or TV show that has content in it that is not exactly appropriate, it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch it. For example, the Netflix show 13 Reasons Why comes to my mind. With popular or trending things, I tend to wait a month or two and observe the commentary on the internet before I watch it. I do this because I like to have a basic understanding of how my culture receives a thing before I walk into it to form my own opinion. And while I am not going to dive into my opinion on that show, it was tough to watch and actually sent me into several panic attacks by the end of the third season. So, why did I watch all of it? Because it mattered to the world that I exist in. And I wanted to inform myself of not only its contents, but the way people view it and what those who are in charge of creating content are doing to shape impressionable minds. 

b.     Time after time, I am slapped in the face with this reality that the entertainment industry glorifies and normalizes things that actually hurt us. When I was a kid watching shows and movies, I simply observed those things and put them in a container in my mind to revisit later. With some age and life experience, seeing how some of those things actually play out, they stick out like sore thumbs when I see them now. But that is a part of engaging in the world around us. Now, when popular trains of thought, political ideas, trends, and any number of controversial things come up, I can come to the conversation with a basic understanding of how most people see it. I want to learn from people who don’t see things like I do and still share my perspective in the process. 

3.     Trick the algorithms!!!

a.     Expanding on my first point, social media controls so much about our lives these days. So, what do you do about it? Christ-followers should be intentional about everything including this!

For example, I purposefully follow Instagram pages that target the general male population. Why do I do this? Because I already understand the toxic things that women consume and feel like I should try to understand the other side of the fence. Not because I love seeing videos of female bodies being sexualized with the caption “Her @ is ___, thank me later.” Or because I relate to that sort of content. But, by me following it, I get to see what resonates with men and I also keep the algorithms from completely catering to what I actually want to see.

Whether the things that a lot of men subscribe to are healthy or not, I will never be able to speak into what I do not understand and so I stay there. I think we have a duty to look at the darkness in the world because we are the lights. If we don’t purposefully speak into it and keep that light all to ourselves, we are enabling the enemy to create even more strongholds and keep more people in chains. We aren’t called to look away from evil, but to look it right in the eyes and challenge it.

b.     I follow professed non-Christians, ex-Christians, pastors, leaders from other religions, models, cooks, poets, artists, musicians from all walks of life, etc. I like videos on the Tik Tok FYP that I don’t agree with, engage with videos I don’t agree with, and basically do all that I can to keep my phone from filtering out the things I don’t want to see. I want to see as much as I can of everything going on in the world because I refuse to live in a bubble, even though technology wants to place us inside of one.

Those are just a few practical things I make a discipline of. I have already run a bit long today and for that I apologize. If you disagree with anything I said, believe I could have said anything better, or think I missed something, please reach out to me. I want to grow with you! Thanks for taking the time to get this far and have a beautiful week. :)

Till next Sunday,

-Lexi Cummings