Jannel Moore

It’s interesting that the culture in which we live tends to adopt negative connotations to the word "different." If I’m going out with a guy, for example, and the adjective I use to describe him is "different," people may look at me funny.

However, within our Christian subculture, "different" becomes a character trait we wish to exude. We tend to adopt the word with a sense of pride. Christ has called us to be different. The Word of God compels us to live a life that stands out. Today, the desired question that many Christians seek is notorious: "There’s something different about you, what is it?" And the evangelical answer, is, of course, "Christ has made me different." But the question I’d like to ask every one of us is, has he really? Are we really different than the world around us?

Seattle Pacific strives to be different, outstanding even. SPU is out to breed a particular kind of Christian, Christians who make a difference in this world. Guest speakers come and rave about SPU students and how great they are. President Eaton starts most of his addresses with an acknowledgement of SPU’s achievements. We excel at academics, athletics and especially, Christianity. We have chapels, faith learning forums and GROUP.

As a recent guest editorialist asserted, we strain for perfection! How can you argue with that?

And yet, for those of us who attend SPU, there is somewhat of a contradiction. There are girls who attend GROUP on Wednesday nights that are spending Friday nights going to frat parties at the UW. There are men who have weekly Bible studies with their floor and are smoking weed on the weekends. Some of our student leaders host parties where the drinking gets a little out of hand.

Don’t bother sending a letter to the editor denying that these things take place, because as a person who has been in the midst and involved herself in such hypocritical actions, I know that they do. I have been the epitome of a Christian hypocrite. I talked the talk, but the walk was gone. I told my friends that I was passionate about God while my actions told a completely different story. Someone close to me at the time, told me, "You say that you’re passionate about Jesus, but I don’t know..." He didn’t believe me. Go figure.

I know that there are many people at SPU who love Christ and are making a difference. But as a whole, SPU is infected with a disease. It is an epidemic that has infiltrated the Christian culture and our spiritual lives. We are infected with a lukewarm sense of what it means to be Christians. The passion is gone! We walk around knowing that grace has saved us and living like the rest of the world. Studies by researchers have found that in this country, there is no significant difference between the lives of Christians and lives of the secular world. This is sad!

Do you believe in Jesus? If the answer is yes, then how are you living for him? By living two lives? Maybe you’re thinking that this doesn’t apply to you, but apathy is one and the same with hypocrisy. The Old Testament is saturated with this truth.

A few months ago, a sermon opened my eyes to this fact. In the book of Ezekiel, Israel falls away from God. She became like the nations around her. Her people had fallen into the trap of worshipping idols, sacrificing children and living like the pagans around them. What the pastor pointed out was that what Israel was doing was actually worse than the nations around her, because Israel knew God. They had a relationship with Yahweh, yet when the other nations looked at Israel, they didn’t see that. Instead, if they saw anything, it was that Jehovah could not be the right God. If he were, then Israel would not be looking in other places for other things to fill their needs.

Isn’t this manifest in our own lives? We tell people, "Look at this wonderful Jesus. He’s changed my life!" How? Why would anyone ever want to become a Christian if it doesn’t change our lives? If we are the hands and feet of Christ, like the Bible says we are, then shouldn’t we be living lives that are passionately different instead of being like everyone else? We are lukewarm Christians who need to get hot, and the only way to do that is to start living like we mean it.

Being different is hard. It means saying no to things that you want to do. It may mean finding an accountability partner and sharing with them your struggles. It may mean you stay home on Friday night when your friends are partying. It may mean breaking up a bad relationship and being alone for a while.

The world has such bad connotations of "different" because to be different is not easy. It is a daily struggle. But out of that struggle, a passion for the Lord grows, and people will begin to wonder, what is it about you that is different?

As an SPU student, I am sick of being congratulated for the difference I’m making in this world when I’m not. I’m tired of learning how great SPU is when it isn’t.

SPU has an amazing potential for greatness, but it will only be realized when Jesus Christ is exalted and lifted up in our daily lives. Until I quit going to parties, until I stop swearing, until I give up my life, pick up my cross and follow him, and until I make a choice to live for God on a daily basis, then I am just like Israel. I hope that it is our heart, as a community in Christ, to glorify him in our actions. Christ has made a difference. May we follow in his footsteps.