In the World, Not of It

What’s that smell? Rotting octopus? Boiled guts?

No, it’s stinky tofu; a beloved (by some) and decidedly smelly snack. Seriously smelly. Actually, disgustingly smelly. We’ve run into this smell a few times a day so far here in Taiwan. It is not a smell I am familiar with, nor one I want to be familiar with to be honest. However, it is now one of the smells of my new home—Taiwan.

What’s that smell? Rotting octopus? Boiled guts?

No, it’s stinky tofu; a beloved (by some) and decidedly smelly snack. Seriously smelly. Actually, disgustingly smelly. We’ve run into this smell a few times a day so far here in Taiwan. It is not a smell I am familiar with, nor one I want to be familiar with to be honest. However, it is now one of the smells of my new home—Taiwan.

The strangeness of some things (like sidewalk vendors with smelly tofu) proves I am a foreigner in a foreign land. The language, the people, the customs, the money, essentially everything is unfamiliar to me. One could say that I am in this world, but I am totally aware that I am not of it.

I know that the Jesus is referring to spiritual aspects when he speaks of us remaining in this world but being different from it (John 17:14-15). But, sometimes in the USA how this played out didn’t seem so clear to me. It was easy to be “of” the world when the world made sense to me. It was easy to get caught up in commercialism, materialism, patriotism, and all those other –isms.

Being a foreigner has given me new perspective on what it means to be “not of” a place. I walk around and not only do I look different, but I act different, speak different, see things differently, have different values, different customs, etc. You don’t have to look at my passport to know that I am out of place.

The same thing should be true for us as Christians. Our home is in heaven, and we should act accordingly bringing light into the darkness. Now I don’t want to get into what behaviors we should or shouldn’t be doing, what words we should or shouldn’t say, or how we should or shouldn’t act. I think that a lot of the rules, traditions, and preferences that we have are malleable and derived from our own interpretations of the Bible, rather than the Bible itself. Even our personal convictions that are guided from the Holy Spirit do not necessarily apply to everyone.

However, the fact that we are not at home here should be obvious in how we live. We are to be all about God’s glory. So, that when people walk by the see something, hear something, and feel something different—God’s love.

Perhaps, one day we can even make such a distinct impact that people would wonder as they pass by exactly what they have passed. Sort of like stinky tofu, only totally the opposite if you know what I mean.