Set Apart

Set Apart
I, for one, have come to see the phrase "set apart" and relate it to Christianity. This has become a very common expression and compliment meant to depict someone or something (indefinite pronouns) to being set apart for Christ.
This is not a post about Christianity.
This is also not a grammatical post...your English lesson was brought to you today by my Goggle search.

Yesterday I was talking to one of my most favorite people in the world. She began to tell me about life and it's difficulties and like most everyone else, I became to relate my own life to hers.
Life is pretty difficult at times, for sure.

She suffered a great loss and has begun to see people through a new set of eyes. More cautious of others; more weary. Those she should be most able to trust and rely on have betrayed her, or so she feels, and she is alone.
As a good woman, a Christian woman, why is she experiencing these emotions? As a mother, a friend, and a wife, why does she feel so alone?

She feels as though her life is closing in on her.
Everyone is too close.
Everything is too much.

These are feelings I relate to.
My Big Strong Man and I are seeking the very heart of God over where He would have us.
Here, there. Where?
When I think about Pennsylvania, I think of the joys of family and friends. Familiar grounds and fresh air. I think of love and excitement. White Christmases.
I also think about the realities of where I grew up. In a town which has seen more than its share of depression, alcoholism, and mental health. I am entirely disinterested in returning there.
When I consider moving back north, I plead with God that it be far from there.
I plead to be set apart.

As I spoke with my friend, she said these simple truths and I understood her heart. She spoke:
I've changed. I like my independence.

Concerning others she sighed,
If it's me, I can fix it. If it's them, I just have to accept them -but I don't like it.

I type this because I wonder if we are each only so aware of  the impact we are making. The way our lives bump and grind with one another. Are we iron sharpening iron? (Proverbs 27:17) Is there love and goodwill poured outwards upon everyone we meet and know?
Or are we that annoying person in the room, the one all the others hate to tolerate?

I have heard that the number one reason for Atheism is because of people who confess Jesus with their mouths but deny Him with their lives.  

I challenge you reader. Challenge you to examine yourself. Your motives. Your integrity.
If you are so blessed as to have a truth-teller in your life, ask that truth-teller to show you an accurate picture of yourself.
If you are a Christian man or woman, I beg that you go before our Lord and ask Him to examine your heart and life.

Too many of us are well-meaning but lack that gentle touch which is so necessary in this world.

Too many of us have all the right words to speak but have excluded ourselves from anyone's interest because of our haughtiness and nastiness. Preferring to hear our own voice over truly hearing theirs.

Too many of us love ourselves so passionately that we have no room to love another.

Too often we are the problem that we so easily see in everyone else.

"Let no man imagine that he has no influence." (Henry George)

Be more than the person people just "tolerate"-