Are you "In" or are you "Un"?

Seen in a convenience store last Friday, really, truly.

Are you "In"?
Or are you "Un"?

It starts as soon as you're old enough to hang out with peers.
The play group, the cool kids, the cliques, the "In".

And then there is the opposite.  
The desire to be one of the standouts, the loners, the unique, the "Un". 

"Fitting In" or "Fitting Un" - what SHOULD I be doing?

I saw these wristbands at a convenience store over the weekend and the "God is love" among the others got me thinking about where I - as a Christian - fit in.  Or not ("un").

In one way - we are definitely "Un".  
We live "in" this world - but we as children of God are not "of" this world.
We know of the special place in heaven prepared just for us and know that life is not "what you make it".

Listen to 2 Corinthians 10:2-4
"The world is unprincipled. It’s dog-eat-dog out there! 
The world doesn’t fight fair. 

But we don’t live or fight our battles that way—never have and never will. 

The tools of our trade aren’t for marketing or manipulation, but they are for demolishing that entire massively corrupt culture. 

We use our powerful God-tools for smashing warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ." 

BUT - oddly enough - we (the "Un") do that through living and loving those IN the world.
Not through violent destruction or suicide bombing or even heated argument.
Not one of these things ever turned a heart towards Jesus.
Or ears towards the Message of eternal life.

And so - at the same time as being "Un" - we are definitely "In".
"For God so loved THE WORLD that he gave his one and only Son..."
And it's up to us to bring that love to those IN the world.

How?
Our sermon this week from Pastor Patterson was "Free at Last!".
He painted us a beautiful picture of how the apostle Paul was both "In" and "Un".

Paul told the Corinthians (and us!)... 
1 Corinthians 9:19-23
"Even though I am free of the demands and expectations of everyone, 
I have voluntarily become a servant to any and all in order to reach a wide range of people: 
religious, nonreligious, 
meticulous moralists, loose-living immoralists, 
the defeated, the demoralized—whoever. 

I didn’t take on their way of life. 
I kept my bearings in Christ—but I entered their world and tried to experience things from their point of view. 

I’ve become just about every sort of servant there is in my attempts to lead those I meet into a God-saved life. 
I did all this because of the Message. 
I didn’t just want to talk about it; I wanted to be in on it!"

Jesus knows all about our struggles with "In"/"Un" and cares deeply about it.

I'll close with a part of Jesus "Prayer for his Disciples" from John 17:13-19.
"I am coming to you now, but I say these things while I am still in the world, so that they may have the full measure of my joy within them.  

I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world.  

My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.  

Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, I have sent them into the world..." 

Lord,
As I struggle with "In" and "Un" - trying to be all things to all people and to keep myself or everyone satisfied - remind me that you walked this road and paved it for me.
Take me back to your Word for guidance and comfort and instruction.
Am"in".  Am"un".  Amen.

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