As you may have noticed, Generation Impact has been a little vacant these days. I married my wonderful husband last June and began my dream career as his wife. Since then I have decided I’m unable to maintain Generation Impact to the extent I used to without making it a priorty over more important aspects of my life. Since I’m not willing to do that, I’ve chosen to discontinue Generation Impact for the time being. Thanks for reading it over the past few years. The site will remain online so that the archives will be available to you.

I’m still writing, though, and would love to share my weekly articles with you at my new site, AlmostFound.com.

His,
Grace D. Richardson, Editor

God bless!

Grace D Williamson (Soon-to-be-Richardson)
Editor

Naturally, there were moments of tear-stained textbooks and crumpled worksheets, but I praise God for the joyous and mind-opening experience I had schooling at home.

When did you first become involved in music? At what point did you decide to pursue it as a vocation?

For as long as I can remember, music has been a huge part of my life. As a young child I collected classical music, show-tunes, and movie scores on cassette tapes (and then CDs). Although I didn’t know the methods of music construction, or how the notes all fit together, I knew that this wondrous phenomenon did something amazing to me, deep inside. My childhood obsession turned into piano lessons at age nine, which resulted in an increased awareness of how music was constructed.

When I was fourteen, my family suffered the loss of our precious sister/daughter Anna (she was six years old and was born with a fragile heart). Although my family had been through loss when my infant brothers Samuel and Josiah died, losing Anna was something new for all of us. The memories of six years with her created a huge void in the hearts of my family…and me. We were forced to lean on Jesus Christ’s strength day in and day out. During this time of heartache music first began to stir inside of me and manifest itself in songs. As the music came more and more frequently, the Lord made it apparent that composing was my calling and would be my vocation.

After high school, how did you gain further education and training in your field? What pros and cons do you see in going a non-traditional college degree route for higher education?

Post high school, I continued my music studies through a variety of avenues. The first, and most important, was gaining knowledge by experience! The year following my graduation was the most concentrated portion of my film-specific composing work, and I remember that time as a crash course in many areas of study.

Formally, I continued my music education with Berklee College of Music’s online certificate program. My online studies concentrated on orchestration (both traditional and midi), music technology, syncing music to film, and tuning my personal sense of dramatic narrative to better match the movement of a story with music.

For me, the non-traditional college route seemed par-for-the-course. Music composition, like many other creative arts, is a focus study that thrives in an isolated environment. My parents have always been extremely supportive of following God’s specific leading for a specific purpose, and mine has always been music! There are always cons to going against the grain (such as the lack of a formal degree and the difficulty of forging a new path through a society of traditions and statistics), but when God leads, no man can dissuade.

Where do you find inspiration for your creative projects?

I like to immerse myself in projects, whatever they may be, and let the music take on inspiration of its own. Sometimes I’ll tap into personal memories and experiences when I’m composing; other times I’ll become inspired by outside sources (such as films, books, and other pieces of music). When my creativity hits a low, a French Press full of coffee and some time in prayer often does the trick.

What potential do you think music has to impact the culture? What role can Christians take to help realize this potential?

Music certainly has an incredible impact on culture. From music videos to sold-out concerts to local music scenes and orchestras, music seems to have a foothold just about anywhere we look. As Christian musicians (and listeners) I believe it is our responsibility to produce and appreciate this art in the name of Jesus Christ. Although not all types of music are purely evangelical (or even completely worshipful) that doesn’t mean that the Christian individual can’t glorify God through them. Music is largely an avenue to entertain and inspire the heart and soul. If Christians can engage culture on this level and then take it a step deeper with a testimony of Christ’s hope, love, and forgiveness…imagine the impact!

What advice do you have for young music students who have an interest in composing – either film music or otherwise? Any specific tips for breaking out of familiar ruts when composing or working on creative projects in general?

Fall in love with music. I know that sounds general and syrupy…but it’s so necessary. Compose in your head while you’re eating breakfast, exercising, even while you’re mowing the lawn! Technically, I think it’s a great idea to notate as many musical ideas as possible. Early notations don’t have to be complex or extraordinary, they just have to reflect the song that’s already in your head. A single line across a treble clef is a huge step in transitioning from student musician to accomplished composer.

Ruts? There have been many times in the course of composing projects where I feel absolutely spent, anti-creative, and useless. I’d like to say that there’s a trick or a shortcut to breaking out of this block, but there really isn’t. I remember one particular piece that I labored on for eight hours straight before deciding to scrap the entire thing! I went to bed exhausted and angry, woke up at three o’ clock in the morning, and proceeded to rewrite the entire piece before sunrise. The results were a hundred times better! My advice? Keep working through your creative blocks, but don’t become happy with any resulting mediocrity…wait on true inspiration.

How do you think homeschooling contributed to your life and work now as an adult?

Homeschooling has contributed to my life in ways too numerous to mention! Sitting under the instruction of my parents afforded me not only an education born of love and care, but a deep appreciation for the truth of God’s Word. In conjunction, music is a specialized study that requires a lot of time and commitment, and the homeschool environment (a.k.a. learning at home) offered ample time for it! My mother has always said that if she can teach her children how to learn, she will have accomplished her chief goal as an educator. In turn, it has become my hope to learn and absorb everything I can as I continue to walk through life.

Special thanks to author/blogger Natalie Wickham for conducting this interview with Jared. View other interviews with Christian young people at www.pajamaschool.com.

She dresses herself with strength and makes her arms strong. Proverbs 31:17.

As my mind explored that verse and the now apparent literal meaning behind it, new things came to light that I had never considered before.

“She dresses herself with strength and makes herself strong.” This didn’t just happen. This mother’s remarkable strength was not something she was born with. She seeks daily to strengthen herself and provide for herself and her household. The role of mother is a physically taxing job. Her job starts when her first child is conceived in her womb, and it never ends. Daily she must rise up and strengthen her arms.

But just how does she do this? What exactly are the jobs of a mother’s arms?

First, a Proverbs 31 mother is a Comforter. As the old saying reminds us, “If Mother ain’t happy, ain’t nobody happy!” the mother is the emotional comforter for the family. Rising every night, she nurses the smallest baby who needs her nourishing care. She soothes the little ones who awaken from nightmares early in the morning. She walks for hours on the cold floors to rock the sick baby to sleep. When I lie sick in bed, my greatest wish is always for my mom to come sit on the bed and hold my hand. When I am sad, my greatest desire is for her to hug me. It is a God-given gift to mothers. They are comforters in a special and holy way. The comfort of their arms and hands is remarkably soothing. Even the tiniest baby can recognize its mother’s touch.

Second, this mother is a Supporter. As she leads her children through their beginning years and then prepares them for adulthood, her arms must never grow weak. Her first earthly loyalty is to her husband as his helpmeet, and her second loyalty is to her children. When her children are young, they need her arms to teach them to walk. A baby wants to see his mother’s arms waiting to catch him. As her children grow older and more independent, she will use her literal arms less and less to catch them as they fall. But as her bodily arms fall unneeded to her sides, she must not neglect her figurative arms. These arms must grow stronger and stronger as she continues to support and lead her children from a distance.

Third, the mother from Proverbs is a Leader. As she holds the baby, leads the toddler, and teaches her growing children, she is leading their footsteps through life. Her hands must continually be clasped in prayer and her arms grasping for the Lord’s strength as she points the souls entrusted to her to their Lord and Savior. As they struggle and fall, so will she. She must strengthen her arms physically and emotionally so that she may train them, encourage them, and ultimately send them out into the world. Her hands must be firmly rooted in the arms of her Savior.

But the roles of a mother are not limited to her lifetime. As I said, her job begins when her first child is conceived, and it never ends. A mother’s legacy and inspiration lives on to “rise up and call her blessed.” I can still remember being four years old and watching as my mother read to me. I didn’t watch her face or the page before me. Instead I watched her hands. I was fascinated by my mother’s hands, and I still am. I love how soft and smooth they are and yet how strong. I love how long her nails are and yet still worn down with work. I love the gold bands on her hand; because of them, I am here. I still remember the feel of being comforted by my mother. I am still enraptured by the way her hands look. I hope my own hands resemble hers one day.

I have seen my mother carry child after child when she was too tired to take another step. I have seen her lift her children to give them a better view of the world above them. I have seen her push strollers, wear backpacks, carry diaper bags, read books, swing children, rock babies, change diapers, brush hair, wipe tears, clap in encouragement, and stop to hug a grumpy child. And yet she doesn’t seem to weary. Her arms are still incredibly strong. She still rises every morning and girds herself with strength.

Rising in the morning and making yourself strong is not an easy task. I know my mother feels like she doesn’t do it every day. But her children know differently.

Mothers, your children love your arms and your hands. They provide the support, comfort, and leadership that they, as children, desire. As you read, your children stare at your hands. As you walk, they love the way your hand feels holding theirs. As you wipe their tears, your children are amazed at how comforting your touch is to their troubled hearts.

Whether you feel worthy or not, your children believe in their heart of hearts that you still rise every morning and strengthen your arms just for them.

And that’s why your daughters pray that they will be just like you one day and that their arms will be as strong as yours.

- Jessica Pritchett

You’re officially making me feel old. You’re not a high school kid anymore. You’re a young man with a wide-open future to claim.

I remember facing that same future and standing on that same brink. At your back lies the comfortable, known realm of childhood. Before you stretches the land of nothing and everything – where nothing is certain, and everything is possible. The question looms like a thick cloud over your head: “What am I going to do with my life?” Not only is it the heart cry of every kid on the brink, but it also plagues the minds of countless adults.

I gave up asking this question a long time ago, though. While it’s a legitimate question, the answer is overrated. First, I’m not convinced any of us will ever truly answer this question in this life. Secondly, I’m not sure that, even if we could, the answer would afford all the peace and direction we crave. I know the question has practical purposes and even a good motive. A lot of Christians ask the question because they are genuinely trying to choose a life and goals that will glorify God. But when they ask the question, “What am I going to do with my life?” they are not looking at the same thing God is looking at.

“The Lord does not look at the things man looks at. Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart” (1 Samuel 16:7b).

When God commanded Samuel to anoint the next king of Israel, the prophet was looking for the tallest, buffest, most distinguished and successful man. But God chose David, the little brother who tended sheep, to rule His people. As David grew into “a man after God’s own heart,” we can see why. The Lord wasn’t looking for someone with a three-step plan for becoming a successful king in less than five years. God already had a plan. He was looking for a man with a heart willing to submit to His plan.

In a world where we don’t know the future and where God has a plan, “What am I going to do with my life?” may not be the most important question to ask. God is not as concerned with what we do for a living as He is with who we are in Him. So a better question to ask might be, “Who am I going to be?”

This is not just a question we ask when we graduate high school or reach some other milestone. This is a question we will have to ask ourselves every single day with every decision we make. Every situation we find ourselves in. Every path we choose. Sunday through Saturday. God is not looking at our diplomas or paychecks. He is looking at who we are, and who we are is partly defined by our daily choices to do right or wrong.

Joseph of the Bible was a man defined by his constant choice to act with integrity in every situation. He was probably about the age of a high school graduate when God’s plan for him began to unfold with his brothers trying to murder him. By the end of his life, he was a respected ruler over a world power. If you had asked him at the age of seventeen what he wanted to do with his life, he probably wouldn’t have included being thrown into a pit, sold as a slave, accused of adultery, or imprisoned. But although those things weren’t among his life goals, he chose to be the right man in the face of them. He did the right thing no matter how others betrayed, accused, or used him. Over and over again we read, “God was with him, and he prospered.” As a slave he became the steward of a government official. As a prison inmate he became the assistant warden. Eventually God led him into a place of power, second only to Pharaoh of Egypt. Because he had chosen to be the right man through all the little decisions and circumstances leading up to this point, he was the right man when God made him ruler of a nation.

In Joseph we see an example of a man who chose the kind of person he would be, and God gave Him something to do with his life. This pattern is prevalent throughout scripture: Daniel, Esther, Nehemiah, and the list goes on. These faithful heroes show us something significant when it comes to life direction. God doesn’t look for the person with a detailed plan for life from grade school to retirement. He looks for the man with a heart like His own, a heart ready to submit to His perfect plan. The Lord isn’t impressed with college degrees, prestigious careers, or 401K’s. He is Father to the people after His own heart, and these are the people to whom He will give great deeds.

So pursue your interests. Chase the future confidently and deliberately. Get your degree, start your new job, save for retirement. But before you do anything, decide what kind of man you will be, and be that man in the pits and prisons of your life so that someday God can use you in the palaces of the world.

Love,
Your Big Sister

- Grace D Williamson

Paul did not seek to hide the most terrible thing he ever did. Instead he speaks of it in several of his letters and even at one point calls himself the chief of all sinners.

Why do we try to hide our failures? Why do we attempt to show a false picture of ourselves to others? We are the same as the Pharisees who Jesus said were “like whitewashed tombs which on the outside appear beautiful, but inside they are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness” (Matthew 23:27).

We’re attempting to hide the fact that we are “filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; and although they know the ordinance of God, that those who practice such things are worthy of death, they not only do the same, but also give hearty approval to those who practice them” (Romans 1:29-32). When faced with the true condition of the human race it is not difficult to understand why we are under a sentence of eternal death.

We Christians have committed these same acts. Yet we attempt to “whitewash” ourselves and, in doing so, merely add hypocrisy to the list. We are normal people. We have committed the same sins as the rest of the world, and there is nothing that will ever change that. Instead of attempting to whitewash ourselves we must see that “by the grace of God I am what I am.”

Any difference in us is not our doing. It is by the grace of God. We are ordinary people. We are not called to be strong, wise, perfect, or even respected people who are better than the rest of the world. Instead “God has chosen the foolish things of the world to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong, and the base things of the world and the despised, God has chosen, the things that are not, that he may nullify the things that are, that no man should boast before God. But by his doing you are in Christ Jesus, who became to us wisdom from God, and righteousness and sanctification, and redemption, so that, just as it is written, ‘Let him who boasts, boast in the Lord’” (1 Cor. 1:27-31).

This is our calling: to boast in the Lord. We are normal people whom God is working in and through to accomplish His will. Who we are is a result of God’s work, and so any attempt to show a false picture of ourselves is a rejection of that work.

Instead, “Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although he existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross” (Philippians 2:5-8).

I once heard a Christian comedian say that he was a Christian because “it is the only religion that would have me. Other religions have all these rules… Christianity looks at humans and says, ‘You stink!’ Oh well, come on in.” This is true. Instead of handing us a list of rules and telling us to follow them and He will love us, God loves us as we are and has arranged a way for our sins to be forgiven.

We Christians must stop pretending to be more than we are. We are ordinary, sinful people. The only difference between our sins and those of the rest of the world is that ours have been forgiven by the grace of God. We still have a responsibility to labor to become more than we are. But it is absolutely necessary that we always remember that the work God is doing in our lives is His doing, not our own, and we have nothing in ourselves to boast of.
It was because he understood and accepted this work that Paul said, “But by the grace of God I am what I am, and His grace toward me did not prove vain; but I labored even more than all of them, yet not I but the grace of God with me.”

- Warner T. Richardson

From learning to accept parents’ instruction with an open mind (Chapter 1), to “Beauty Secrets from the Proverbs” (Chapter 3), to the reminder in the last chapter that in order to “…get wise and stay that way, you have to stay connected to the Scriptures…,” Ms. Schillinger covers multiple subjects using verses from Proverbs. These verses serve as her basis for instruction in daily-living, ending each section with a simple, “Thought to Hold.”

A book that breaks down Proverbs as a guide for the daily living of young Christian women is inarguably worthwhile and an exciting premise, and Ms. Schillinger is sincere in her desire to encourage young women. Overall the tone of the book seems somewhat flippant and superficial, but young Christians or those coming from difficult backgrounds may connect better with the author’s style of writing.

Purity’s Big Payoff/Premarital Sex is a Big Rip-off

Purity’s Big Payoff and the flip-side of the book, Premarital Sex is a Big Rip-off, is a compilation of “True Stories about Love that Waited” and “True Stories about Sex and Regret,” respectively. Whether you struggle with sexual temptation, have fallen into immorality, or are saving yourself for marriage, this book is an interesting and thought-provoking read.

Purity’s Big Payoff gives a glimpse into the lives of individuals who, for various reasons, have made the decision to save intimacy for marriage. However, you also see that for each of them there were unique boundaries regarding how much or how little physical touching they chose to have in their relationships.

Premarital Sex is a Big Rip-off shows the flip-side, where intimacy was not preserved for marriage. Unfortunately, some of these stories begin with a young child’s innocence being taken from them, with results that affect them for life. One thing most of these stories illustrate is the almost insurmountable difficulty each of these people faced in trying to turn their lives around. While all of them have experienced healing, the scars will remain for the rest of their lives.

For anyone struggling with sexual purity or looking for guidance to make right decisions, Donna Lee Schillinger’s Purity’s Big Payoff/Premarital Sex is a Big Rip-off offers a real and honest look at what can be expected from either choice.

- Noelle Wickham

“As the curtain rises, Hannah hesitantly steps onto the stage for her theatrical debut in college. Yet before she can utter her first lines, Hannah—unscripted—collapses in front of the stunned audience.

In the midst of her incredible journey, Hannah finds that life can be so much more than what you have planned.”

Though you’ve been involved in numerous film projects, October Baby is your first feature film. What led you to acting, and how did you get connected with the Erwin brothers?

I went to the University of Montevallo in Alabama and got my degree in Photography. While I was studying, a close friend of mine who was also in the photography department was set up on a blind date with a director. He had this glamorous job where he got to work cameras for ESPN and travel all the time… Finally she introduced me to him, and he was a great guy. We all went out for dinner one night, and at dinner he invited one of his friends who is also a filmmaker.

[His friend] sat down at the table with us and said to me, “I want to put you in my short film.”

I said “Yes” because I really, really love trying out things and experimenting with what I can and cannot do. But I was pretty laid back about it. I said, “I don’t think I’m going to be good, so you probably need to find somebody else.”

But he put me in his short film. It was a nine-minute drama, a black and white ghost story and very interesting. I loved the script and thought it was so great. When I looked at the final product, I was blown away by the director’s ability to bring this out in me. I believed myself when I watched it. I didn’t feel like I had acting all over my sleeve. I thought, “Ok, this whole acting thing isn’t so hard.”

That little short film got me five jobs with the Erwin brothers throughout the last years of school. They saw it and thought, “We want her to be in this, and we want to put her in that.” They kept using me. They trusted me and liked my work. And that eventually led to them writing the script of October Baby for me.

What about October Baby appealed to you when you first read the script?

There were a lot of things I read that I was really moved by. It’s an incredible story of redemption. You read from beginning to end, and you feel like you’re going on this journey with Hannah. I wanted to be a part of that. John and Andy Erwin sent me the script with me in mind to play the role… It was definitely a role that they had intended for me, so I just had to say, “Yes.” I read the script and, of course, I was on board.

Your character, Hannah is an emotionally charged role. How did you get into her character and personalize her struggles?

I just stepped on set with a prepared mindset to feel what was happening naturally. I didn’t do a lot of preparing. I don’t know how to prepare for roles. I didn’t study acting. I’ve never been in a feature film before. This is my first time in that world. I was open to suggestions. I talked with some other actors who had a sense of learning the back-story and really researching and creating character and the personality of the character.

I thought John [Erwin] and Theresa Preston, the co-writers of the script, did a great job of communicating emotion and feeling in the dialogue in the scenes where [Hannah] is expressing herself. All I needed to do was believe her – believe her words and believe what she was feeling.

Every day I stepped on set with a fresh perspective of what Hannah was going to need and how she was going to express herself. I felt the scenes naturally. I tried to portray her as honestly as I could. My preparation, though, was pretty limited. I wasn’t prepared, but I think in a lot of ways that helped Hannah be even more vulnerable and naïve.

What did you enjoy most about working with the Erwin brothers?

I’m really learning about how talented they are. I got to see so much behind the scenes, how much hard work is involved, how much graphic campaigning, word of mouth, endless days, and sleepless nights these guys are experiencing because they’re really pushing through to the release date…

This experience also prepared me for disappointment with other directors. And I don’t say that lightly. I know I can’t always work with John and Andy. They can’t put me in every film. And they don’t need to. They need to be giving other actors opportunities and doing what they’ve done for me for other people. But at the same time, I wish I could work on every film with them. I wish that could be the rest of my career.

But I have some other great directors I’d love to work with, and I’m just wondering what it’s going to be like to step into that world without much experience at all in feature film, or television for that matter… I’ve been in LA making meetings with agencies. I’ve got a few meetings with directors and casting directors. The ball is rolling forward, but I am still really new and am constantly learning. I feel like I could never know all there is to know about this by any means.

How do you hope October Baby will affect viewers’ perspectives on abortion?

I think, in order to change your mind about something, it has to start in the heart of the issue. John and Andy did not want to make a film about abortion. They wanted to tell a story and incorporate that part of Hannah’s life into her story and ultimately her path to forgiveness and figuring out where she comes from and letting her pain go…

Any good filmmaking has its own message. But if the film is beating you over the head with something, you’re more likely not going to receive it because that’s not how, in our humanity, we respond to issues. They need to be brought to us in a gentle light so that we can look at them and evaluate them and see the humanity issue…

Whatever perspective you’re coming from, the film gives you a little bit of a different approach to something I had never heard of, which is an abortion survivor. It shows you the perspective of a victim, and that’s really undeniable.

What is different about working on a faith-oriented film like October Baby than a regular secular project?

There’s a whole different thing that happens when you’re onset with Christians who are truly people who have faith in their lives. I feel like I’m spoiled because how many other Christian directors are there? How many other directors are out there making films that you can take your family to see?

I don’t have to be afraid of exploitation or being taken advantage of or being manipulated in any way with these guys. They’re just like brothers to me. That whole reality was a true gift… It was a great experience for all of the actors to have been a team with the same agenda to tell a great story – not the agenda to push the issue of abortion over your head, but to tell a great story. I think we did a great job of telling a great story. That was the most exciting thing about working with John and Andy – getting to be a part of their storytelling process.

What do you hope viewers will ultimately take away from October Baby?

My hope is that women who have felt pressure or guilt or shame and see the film would feel release and life. I want them to feel light when they walk out of the theatre. A lot of women who have gone into the theatre feeling heavy have felt like a weight has been lifted off of them. I’ve even heard some women say, “I feel like this movie is healing me.” I know that’s not something we did, so it’s pretty amazing. I hope that continues…

I hope people tell other people to go see it and experience it because it’s not just a story that you walk away from and think, “That’s a great story. Moving on now.” You kind of do experience it and interact with it. You go on a journey with Hannah. It’s hard to separate yourself from that immediately after. I think it sticks with you for a little while.

Read Generation Impact’s review of October Baby.

That’s how a missionary greeted my sister when she landed in a third-world country to help out on his mission station. He said it politely with a smile, but he was dead serious. They weren’t there for an exotic vacation or a thrilling experience. Their goal was to live out their faith in the face of death, disease, poverty, and twisted worldviews.

Historically, this is what being a Christian is all about. Christians were once known for what they did, how they lived, and the kind of people they were. They stood for justice, integrity, compassion, and love, no matter the circumstances around them. They were known as salt and light.

But today Christians are known for what we’re against. We’re the weirdoes who abstain from too much partying, premarital sex, drugs, and alcohol, and probably think we’re better than everyone else because of it. We have our own radio stations, film industry, and book publishers. These bubbles cushion us from the hardness of the world.

After all, God commands His people, “Be Holy because I am holy.” Wouldn’t it follow that we are to protect ourselves from everything that isn’t holy? In order to reflect a perfect God, shouldn’t we do our best to create a pristine environment where we can live above culture’s filthiness and eventually attain holiness?

In order to be more spiritual, we shelter ourselves. We’re so afraid this little light of ours will be contaminated that we crawl under a bushel. In this confined area, the light is all we see. It becomes comfortable, and we forget darkness exists outside.

Satan wants us to believe this. He wants us to think life on earth is G-rated. He’s afraid that if we see the world for what it really is, we might do something about it. If he can keep our light comfortably burning under a bushel, we will never challenge darkness. Eventually our light will burn out. Quietly. Purposelessly. It will fade away.

If we live under a bushel, it is true that we may never have to hear a bad word or see anything shocking. We may also never make a difference. Is this holiness?

If we are to be holy because God is holy, let’s look at how He responded to a fallen world:

“While Jesus was having dinner at Levi’s house, many tax collectors and sinners were eating with Him and His disciples, for there were many who followed Him. When the teachers of the law who were Pharisees saw Him eating with the sinners and tax collectors, they asked His disciples: ‘Why does He eat with tax collectors and sinners?’

“On hearing this, Jesus said to them, ‘It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick. I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners’” (Mark 2:15-17).

Christ, the essence of holiness on earth, wasn’t afraid to get His hands dirty. He reached out and touched wicked people. He could handle the world’s brokenness because His holiness came from His divine nature, from within.

He rebuked the Pharisees because they tried to attain outward holiness. They focused on the external and protected themselves from anything that could be considered unclean. But Jesus still told them, “Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence” (Matthew 23:25).

I’m a Pharisee. I shelter myself from all kinds of profanity, immodesty, and worldliness. But inside I am just as vile as the “tax collectors and sinners” I avoid. My fear of facing the reality of sin in myself and in others hinders my effectiveness for the gospel.

Years ago I had a friend who made me feel dirty. Besides the fact that she was my age, we had little in common. She came from a broken home and lived in squalor. I came from a tidy, stable, Christian atmosphere. I was your typical church girl who wore skirts on Sundays. She took her fashion cues from prostitutes. I was soft-spoken and had never said a bad word in my life. Let’s just say she had a broader vocabulary.

Her cursing bothered me. My tender ears would burn when I heard her, and my naïve mind imagined this kind of talk was the pinnacle of sinfulness. Being a good Christian, I felt responsible for fixing her outward problems.

All she needed was Jesus. But I never told her about Him. Instead I tried to explain to her that she shouldn’t cuss. She looked at me with a blank stare. Over the years we lost touch. I don’t know where she is or what kind of life she’s living. I had an opportunity to influence her, but instead of showing her that she needed Christ, I tried to staunch the external symptoms of her need. I tried to clean the outside of the cup.

Real holiness comes from Christ. He offers us His holiness that resides within and can’t be tarnished or dimmed, no matter how evil the world around it. Our call to be holy is not a call to live in a perfect world or to create our own perfect world. It is a call to march through shadow and filth, bearing the image of Christ into a fallen world.

Welcome to Hell.

We may get uncomfortable. We may see and hear things we didn’t want to know. We may have to roll up our sleeves and get our hands dirty. I don’t know about you, but I’d rather have calluses on my hands and the holiness of God in my heart than fall asleep in my pew with a manmade holiness on my sleeve.

- Grace D Williamson