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Being different and distinct; that's what so many people say they want. Yet, it is so much safer to blend in and be like everyone else.  We talk a lot about being our own person. At the same time, we often try to emulate someone else. I am Tiger Woods repeated a variety of children in an early Nike commercial. I Wanna Be Like Mike was the jingle endorsing Gatorade. It seems that if I wear what they wear or drink what they drink then in some small way I am supposed to be like them. Mankind always seems to be in search of someone else. We often live out our deepest fantasies through the books we read or the movies we watch. And interestingly enough, God desires that for us as well and wants to assist us into conforming to the image of His Son Jesus.

So, why are Christians called to be different and distinct?  We often talk about being in the world but not of the world. What exactly does that mean? I am reminded of three phrases that may help explain. The first word is conflicted. Conflicted is what I would describe as the way believers feel as they try to live in two worlds simultaneously; calling themselves Christian but keeping one foot firmly planted in the world. The second word is double-minded; a word that had to be invented in order to fully understand what happens to believers who are neither different nor distinct. Stop and think; an unbeliever cannot be double-minded. This sad word is reserved for believers only. The last phrase is lukewarm. That is the precise temperature in which God spits us out of his mouth since He would prefer us to be hot or cold. This passage says that God would prefer that we either be with Him or not with Him, but he absolutely abhors our trying to do both. All three of these phrases describe a pretty miserable existence as a believer. We are called to be different and distinct from the standard set by the world. Our good news comes from I Peter 2:4-12.  

As you come to him, the living Stone-rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him-you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. For in Scripture it says: "See, I lay a stone in Zion, a chosen and precious cornerstone, and the one who trusts in him will never be put to shame." Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe, "The stone the builders rejected has become the cornerstone," and, "A stone that causes people to stumble and a rock that makes them fall."  

They stumble because they disobey the message - which is also what they were destined for. But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God's special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy. Dear friends, I urge you, as foreigners and exiles, to abstain from sinful desires, which wage war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.