As Christ followers, we are given the gift of living in the world but not of the world. Christ has made us in Him, defined us in Him, and freed us from living of the world.

There’s that scene in the first Matrix where Neo’s eyes hurt and Morpheus says it’s because he hasn’t used them yet. Your eyes show you the whole other world that is very real. We’re all learning to use them for the first times.

With open eyes, you can see the distinction between what was, and what could be. The physical, spiritual, and emotional gratification of the impossible. You can see the freedom that He speaks of.

Stepping out of Living Of the World makes you want to believe that He would lay everything out in front of you. All you have to do was follow what He says, step in line with him, and the banquet table would be set. All worries, desires, stress, happiness, joy, peace, would be addressed or provided by Him. You see the impossible become possible, and all you have to do is follow these steps.

I have misinterpreted and down right disregarded the difference between “living of the world” and “living in but not of the world.

I strived to figure out what not living in the world would be, what that would look like for me. Begged for Him to show me what it was I had to check off my list so I could do it and be blessed.

I am still working on what this all means for me, but a confession of the box I’ve put him in is a start. I have been waiting for the “checklist of evil doings” that’ll never come in hopes of building myself up as a super Christian. I want to ride that high horse and the horse I was on started with me trying to live outside of the world in hopes of “making it” in His eyes.