Lately, I’ve been wondering about social media and smart phones. Do I have a phone addiction? Is God trying to speak to me about said addiction?
What is my relationship to my phone and I how do I find balance?
More importantly, what is God trying to say to me in my life right now? Is it that I have too much noise?
I live some of my days worried about whether or not I’m doing enough.
I live some of my days determined to believe God loves me just as I am. That I’m enough.
The last time I heard God clear as a bell was months ago. I pray daily, read Scripture, chew on morning and evening Psalms. I dwell with God, but don’t often hear anything clearly.
A few months ago, I was driving down Novelty Hill, a steep road that curves into the valley near my house, and I asked God, Do you have anything to say to me?
Silence filled up my Highlander like a pregnant pause, and I heard the voice, or whatever it is we call it, speak to me. I want you to be holy, because I am holy.
I scrunched up my face, and flinched. Holiness is not really something I am known for.
I swear all the time.
I’m divorce and remarried.
I watched and read The Game of Thrones and also Outlander.
I’m not bothered by how women dress.
John and I play cards almost every night.
I used to drink freely, until I quit, which could be perceived as holiness, but really was just good-old fashioned self-care.
The point is, I am passionately against legalism which sometimes looks a whole lot like license. Good, holy people are not typically known for license.
I believe people need to work out their own salvation without a bunch of rules telling them how to go about it.
Considering all that, what exactly does God expect of me? What does, Be Holy because I am Holy, even mean?
Upon returning home, I proceeded to do a huge word search on holiness, and talk to John about it at length. There’s a bunch of stuff on holiness in Scripture. The quick and short explanation is that it has something to do with being set apart. Set apart, for something specific.
The articles for the temple weren’t necessarily beautiful in and of themselves. They were plain ordinary articles, but they were holy because people had set them apart as sacred.
In the New Testament, in the book of Peter, he says that the people who follow Jesus are a holy people, they are set apart. They belong to God, and to one another. We aren’t saying we’re better than anyone, we’re saying we belong to someone.
I use knives for specific things. Some knives I set apart for meat, some I set apart for veggies. all knives are set apart to cut. (That’s a very rudimentary explanation. But I’m going with it.)
Some describe holy as other, or transcendent, something that does not fit, wholly unique, and separate.
In Isaiah, God is described as Holy, Holy, Holy. God is super set apart, and also maybe triune.
What is interesting to me is the instruction is emphatic. It’s something God asks of us. We are to be set apart, we are to be other, unique, separate. It’s something we do to ourselves. We are saying, I choose to belong to God. I choose to be set apart as other, as unique, not because I’m anything special, but because I set myself apart.
I go back to my question, Do I have a smartphone addiction? Does it control me?
The cultures we live in are like roaring rivers, fast and strong. You will move with the current you’re swimming in, unless you choose to move in a different direction, or get out of the river altogether. It’s just that strong. You have to deliberately choose to go against the flow if you’re not going to go with the flow.
Holiness might be about swearing or not swearing, it might be about whether or not to watch The Game of Thrones. It depends on several things. It would probably do me well to give up swearing. I get that. But let’s not get hung up there.
Holiness might also be about standing up for what you believe in and raising your voice to defend the oppressed, to notice the hungry and the abused. It might mean taking time off from drinking alcohol because lately, it feels like the only thing you’re set apart for, is booze. Maybe for you, it’s marijuana.
The question of being holy is a question of being different. Of the willingness to stand apart and not go with the masses because you belong to something More, or maybe it’s some ONE more.
God stands apart.
Jesus stands apart. Jesus did not belong to the society. Even when he was twelve years old, he stood apart, separate. People loved and hated him for it.
The matter of being holy also has something to do with seeing your own life as sacred. You matter, and can make choices that demonstrate your intrinsic value. This world does not own you. You were bought with a price, so set yourself apart, according to your price.
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