Colliding Worlds

I grew up in a strange environment where I went to school and church on opposite sides of town. There were people that I hung out with who couldn't find my church on a map, and my church friends didn't know anyone at my school. I had two different worlds. And they didn't mix. 

I remember this dynamic always manifesting itself when I would spend the night with friends. Anytime you stay over with a friend when you're younger, you eventually get cornered and asked the age-old question, "Who do you like?" Wanting to keep my romance goals close to the chest, I would always answer the same way. When I was with my school friends, I'd say, "Oh you don't know her, she goes to my church." Problem solved. Because I'd turn around and do the same thing to my church friends! They'd ask the ancient question and I'd respond, "She's great, but you don't know her, she goes to my school." What a tactic.

I became an expert at living in different worlds. We all do this. It may not be the school/church dynamic, but, as humans, we live in multiple worlds. One is work, the other is family. Some of us have five or six different worlds.

As Christians, the challenge of living in an environment with different worlds is always consistency. Will we follow Christ in the different worlds of our life?

I've always loved the Biblical story of Joseph - partially because his life is a giant accordion. He begins his life as the apple of his father's eye, the crown jewel of his family. As his story moves on, the accordion stretches. Joseph is sent far away from his family and suffers alone in a distant country. Eventually, Joseph's accordion life compresses again and seemingly by chance, he comes in contact with his family.

In his new world, Joseph had really made a life for himself. He had risen in power and was second in command of his country. When he sees his family again, he is so different that they don't even recognize him. How will he respond when his worlds collide? Eventually Joseph makes his decision and in Genesis 45:9, he says, "Hurry and go to my father and say to him, 'Thus says your son Joseph, God has made me lord of all Egypt. Come down to me; do not tarry." Joseph chooses to collide his worlds.

Think about what this shows us: Joseph was excited about having his God-fearing family that he hadn't seen in probably 40 years walk right back into his life. They would discover that he had not forsaken the truth of God as a simple cultural upbringing, but had followed God throughout his trials. Even when he was in a foreign land with no accountability and every reason to defect to his current environment, Joseph lived with consistency.

If we want to cultivate consistency in our lives, replicating Joseph's situation helps us. If we collide our worlds, inviting people from one area of our life to meet people from another area of our life, we push ourselves to live consistently. If Joseph hadn't lived with consistency when his family was nowhere to be found, he would have been in no position to welcome his family into his world.

What kind of world are you building? Joseph spent years building a world of consistency by living with God. In the end, he invited his family in.