Standards

I think fairly regularly about the idea of being holy, of being "set apart" and what it means in the world. What does it look like it my daily life? What can others see that is "set apart" about me? Can others see anything at all? The Bible instructs us by saying that, "Since we live by the Spirit, let us keep in step with the Spirit" Galatians 5:25 (NIV). But what does that really mean?

I think being set apart, as we so often discuss it, is one thing. I think that living in step with the Spirit can be another thing entirely. I think it's useful to even consider the phrasing here: walking in step with the Spirit. Imagine the very essence and Spirit of God walking through your life; now imagine doing your best to keep in step with it - to walk, stride for stride, in the same ways, directions and paths as the Spirit. I don't know about you, but when I look at my life, I certainly fall short of that ideal - even though I may be living in a way that is set apart from the essence of the world around me.

Now, I want to be careful not to send (or receive for myself!) a message of "try harder" and "you're not doing good enough." These are messages I can too often find in just about any teaching, and they can be footholds for Satan to whisper lies into my ear. It's easy for me to be distracted by my own failings. That, however, is not the point. This verse comes just after the very well-known verses about the fruit of the Spirit. The point is not that I should (or even could!) try harder to epitomize those qualities. The point is that the Spirit bears the fruit that is recognized by those qualities; I needn't "try harder" to "do better." What I can do is strive to yield ever more to the Spirit. The fruit is a natural by-product.

So, in light of that, the instruction to keep in step with the Spirit makes sense all the more so. My job is to keep the Spirit as my leader. I can easily begin the rationalization process of what is set apart and how what I may be doing is different than the world, etc etc. It's not that it's bad to recognize these things, and to strive for a life set-apart. It's that the essence of what life in the Spirit is about has little to do with me sizing up and evaluating where I fall in line compared to the world around me. After all, I suspect I'm a poor judge of these things.

My challenge for myself today, and for you should you so desire, is to not try harder, but to try less and yield more. With the Spirit at the proverbial reigns, I am certain to walk in His steps, and to live out the fruit that makes my goal and vision of being "set apart" a beside-the-point by product of a life lived in Him.

Lord, help me yield to Your Spirit today - and every day. Let this day be one in which those around me see YOU in me. Let them see the by-products of Your Spirit lived out in me, and let it bring glory to Your holy name! I praise Your Lord!