IN but not OF the world

This classic line from the lips of Jesus still challenges people today. Recently I posted the following question on Facebook, "What does it mean to be IN but not OF the world? What do we actually mean by this? Is what we mean by this the same thing that Jesus meant by it?"

I was surfing another blog at the Spectrum site where my friend Ryan Bell responded to a similar question in this way, "the tension might be described as being an oxygen-breathing creature in the water, but not of the water. Being in the water, he said, requires getting wet. But it does not require drowning."

I really like this analogy. The creatures pictured above go up for glorious moments of freedom above the water's surface, but that's not where they live. The environment and culture in which they spend the majority of their time is in the water with many other creatures. In fact, they couldn't survive above the water any more than they can survive below without air. They live in a tension between two worlds-that of air and that of water.

I think the final application to the above statement by Jesus is really about tension. There probably isn't a formula that can be applied across the board. Each must wrestle with what it means to get wet in this world and yet still breathe heavenly air.