Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.
Romans 12:2
Ok so being a teenager well actually technically an adult I get to see conforming happen on a daily basis. This word and command in my mind is one of the most shrugged off, don’t get me wrong there are others but this one word seems to be thrown away. It is starting to hurt me inside seeing kids my age doing things only because there friends are or the world is. Kids or teens aren’t the only ones though adults do the same thing. I have talked about the word conforming but what does it mean? Well to put it in simple terms it means to do the things others do or change your ways to others ways. Things that you wouldn’t ever do all of a sudden you do. I pray that this hits home more than anything because it is one thing that will mess your life up.
Ok so I want to say, people before and after reading this have or will realize I am very picky when it comes to doing things. In a sense I am strict. This is one area of my life that I haven’t struggled a whole lot in, but don’t get me wrong I have struggled with it and live in it every day around me. That is why I am writing this because I can’t stand it anymore. I want to play a scenario out and see if it hits the hearts of anyone. My name is Jack I am a 16 year old high school student who is pretty normal. I get good grades and I love my family, but I am not very liked or popular in school. My mom recently bought me a new pair of shoes and I wore them all the time. One day I saw all the kids at school with these cool shoes and realized my shoes weren’t cool at all. I immediately went and bought myself a pair of these shoes and threw mine way to the back of my closet. The next day I walked into school, kids immediately ran up to me and started talking to me and I was finally popular and cared about in school. I after this rarely spent time with my family and I didn’t care about my grades. Now don’t take this like I’m telling you that a pair of shoes are going to ruin your life or that you shouldn’t get a pair of shoes, what I am saying is that look at what happens when we conform ourselves to the world. Imagine the boy as a Believer who loves God and his relationship with his mom represents our relationship with Christ. The school and more specifically the cool shoes represent the world and what it throws at us. See the boy loved God and he was so excited when God gave him new shoes or in this sense the gift of love, but the world intervened and the boy conformed himself to this world by turning to the cooler shoes. He thought he gained more when he lost everything.
This story or brings us to the question of why do we conform ourselves to the world? It is temptations and we want to fit in with everyone. It’s that simple. The boy had a family or mom that loved him, but right when he conformed to the world he finally became popular and kids cared about him. He lost the one relationship that would hold him together and that truly cared and loved him. So ask yourself, is gaining, well not really gaining, a relationship with something that is going to become an idol and/or something that blocks God out really worth it? Here is where I throw my strict ways out there. I have had people tell me that it is fine to use language or do things that this world does just as long as I don’t do it in church or around others, but when I am alone I can do it. Now yes, do we do things that the world does? Of course we do. How we do those things and the reason we do those things are different. When it comes to matters like language or doing things that people who you know are very lost and need help are doing then we need to realize that it is wrong. I have been laughed at because I won’t do certain things and that is fine because I know in my heart that it is wrong. If we as Christians continue to sit and do things that are worldly then the we lose the One thing that matters. So if you know something isn’t going to help your relationship with Christ then don’t do it. I don’t want to sound like you can’t do anything, what I want you to understand is, is we need to know to be ourselves not be someone else. Just a little tip, it is too hard to be someone you aren’t.
Some final thoughts on this topic. Why is the world’s view on the Church so bad? I believe it is because the so called church has done too much conforming. I look around and see churches doing things that I can even imagine whether it is singing music that isn’t even related to Christ or taking part in things that do not bring Glory to the Lord and it hurts because that is not the true Church. So we as the Church or the Body of Christ need, need, need to steer away from worldly things and be true. Whatever you are doing right now stop and ask yourself what are some things I have conformed to either recently or long time ago and throw them out and pray for those who daily get rushed with things to conform too. Kids are going back to school so everyday pray that those who believe would keep their eyes focused and that those who don’t believe would come too know this great truth, so that their eyes may become focused.