Karma-chameleoChristian?

My mind has been reflecting on the ladies conference hosted by the church I attend. Each of the ladies brought distinct points on what it is to be a Godly woman in the society we live in today. But the central theme of the evening was how we are called to be set apart.

Let me reflect just a moment if you will. As my pastor's wife began to share, she brought up moths that look one way as they are flying through the air. However, once they land, they quickly camouflage themselves to hide from predators that would attack them for food. That point alone got my mind to thinking about how we "camouflage" ourselves in the world we live in as Christians. 

As several of our speakers shared from Matthew 5 tonight, I find it pertinent to share it here, verses 13-16: "Ye are the salt of the earth: but if the salt have lost his savour, wherewith shall it be salted? it is thenceforth good for nothing, but to be cast out, and to be trodden under foot of men.Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on an hill cannot be hid. Neither do men light a candle, and put it under a bushel, but on a candlestick; and it giveth light unto all that are in the house.

 Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven." This passage tells us that we are to be "salty". What happens in the natural when you taste something that is too salty? It makes you thirsty for water. Jesus Christ is the Living Water and if we live our lives as the salt of the Earth as this passage describes, it will cause those around us to be "thirsty" for what we have. If we camouflage who we are as believers, there is nothing to make their lives thirsty for more. We actually make it more bland and flavorless, just another ho-hum existence with no meaning. 

The second part of that scripture likens us to a light set upon a hill that gives light unto the world. I actually did a study on this many years ago when a hurricane actually effected my area of North Alabama. Being as far inland as I am, never did I expect high winds, torrential rains and power outages from the very weakened hurricane as it made landfall. As the lights flickered and strained trying to stay on as the powerlines swayed in the wind, I quickly gathered flashlights and candles together. Once I heard the "click" of the tv shutting off and the light disappearing from my vision, darkness quickly filled the house I was in. Made even more eerie when looking into the pitch black outside, not even a star could be seen. As I reached for the lighter to ignite the flame of a candle, that soft, warm glow dispelled the darkness in an instant. I tied that study to the old Kathy Tricolli song "Go Light Your World" and used it as a teaching to the daycare kids I was working with at the time. I was trying to instill in them the importance of being "good" people, not only as children but as adults when they grew up. I haven't thought a lot about that study until tonight. That song starts out by saying "There is a candle in every soul. Some brightly burning, some dark and cold. There is a Spirit in every soul, that ignites a candle and makes it home." 

There is a candle within each of us that we are mandated as believers to shine brightly to the world around us. But how many of us camouflage that light when we are around certain people? We "go with the flow" and let the crowd dictate what we do, where we go and how we act. When we do this, it's not just us putting our light under the basket as was stated in Mattew 5, it is us making a conscious decision to put out our light with the passive thought of "Oh, Sister So-and-so will help pray me back to where I need to be on Sunday." What happens if sister so-and -so is having a day when her candle isn't burning as bright as it should and it's taking all she has to keep her fore going? Are you going to be the one that steals her flame just to get a spark back? That's why you have to tend your own flame through prayer, Bible study, fasting, being in church services with like believers and ultimately not putting yourself in situations where you purposely extinguish your flame.

The other part that really stuck out to me was how the ladies spoke about having the courage to walk alone. I'm learning that lesson in this season since Matt's passing, but it started even before he was gone. For almost two years, walking into a church service without him by my side, coming home to the complete indifference, I got tired. I became that chameleon, being one way while outside my home but conforming to who he wanted me to be inside the home. My prayer life suffered, my study time suffered as everything wrapped around him and his wants and needs. Those usually boiled down to food and medical necessities, especially over the last year, but it wasn't who I wanted to be. I camouflaged to survive. 

As it was brought out this evening, I have been called and set apart for His purpose. If I compromise and camouflage myself to fit what my family desires of me, to what friends or coworkers want from me then I am a fake. It's not even being camouflaged any longer if I continue to make choices that are contrary to the Word of God (not that I have, just in general). For example, I have been blessed with two beautiful nieces. The older of the two I joke should have been mine. Her mom and I are identical twins. For the entirety of the pregnancy, my twin never experienced a contraction. I HAD THEM ALL! Well, that is until the night she went into labor. This girl had it all. She was a straight A student, won all the awards for academics in school and was drop dead gorgeous. I'm talking could have been a model type of looks. But, as the teen years started for her, so too did the bullying at school. She started listening to musicians telling her "love is love" and that she could be whoever she decided to be. With that, she told us that she was attracted to girls and guys, then it went to just girls. While I do not condone the lifestyle, I still love my niece.  However, three years ago at Christmas she dropped the bombshell on me that she was trans and had started taking hormones. I have continued to love her and address her as "she". As this new year started, she made a post on social media that said if the pronouns of "he/him" could not be respected then she did not want that person in their life any longer. While I have not addressed this with her, I will not call her him. She is the daughter of the King who had been deceived and I will not stop praying for her. 

There are other situations as well that are causing strife within my family that pressure me to "take sides". I choose God's side. First Peter 2:9 says, "But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;". The things which God has brought me through in my lifetime, out of that darkness and into His light...Sis. Rebekah shared Psalm 51:10 with us this evening. It is a Psalm that I used to sing as a worship chorus when I was in college and career class in Sunday School. Verses 10-12says, "Create in me a clean heart, O God;And renew a right spirit within me; Cast me not away from thy presence;

And take not thy holy spirit from me. Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation. And uphold me with thy free spirit." Of course as we sang it, the last part was changed to "and renew a righteous spirit within me." 

As the evening was winding down, these words echoed within me. Not because I have done wrong, but because I do just enough to stay right. The old mindsets of my youth and the lifestyles of those "Christians" who were my examples of faith in my formative years overshadow the things I am learning now. It's like an old Sandy Patty called The Dilemma.  The words are taken directly from scripture in 

Romans 7:15-20, "For that which I do I allow not: for what I would, that do I not; but what I hate, that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that it is good.

 Now then it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh,) dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good I find not.

 For the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it, but sin that dwelleth in me." This back and forth of that which I should and should not do has been what has been modeled before me, or should I more accurately say "do as I say and not as I do". 

As all of this has rattled around my brain this evening, I come back to the last scripture shared by my pastor's wife, Joshua 24:15,

 “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."

My final thought on this as I get ready for bed: will you or I continue to live as the karma-karma-karma chameleon that comes and goes into the ways of the world or will you follow what 2 Corinthians 6:17 says, "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." I choose to be separate.  As for me and my house, I will serve the LORD.