SET APART | Doesn’t Mean ‘Cast Aside’

This winter, I arrived at our annual girls' sleepover carrying my pillow, a bottle of alcohol-free champagne and the same gnawing fear that I've brought to every sleepover since I was a teen.

I didn't fit in.

In the old days, I'd pour a drink and down a few more, trying to be like everyone else. But more recently, God had been calling me to live differently.

"Set apart," were His exact words.

But was "set apart" supposed to feel this disconnected and lonely?

For too long, I'd been caught between who I am and who I want to be, feeling "not holy enough" in church and "not fun enough" once I stepped outside.

Feeling a little sorry for myself, I slipped away, lay down, and stared up at the ceiling.

Suddenly, stars appeared in the darkness.

Someone had brought a party light.

Everything above me sparkled, moving from one dark corner of my heart to another, casting a warm glow that swept over my soul in continuous waves of light.

Grace upon grace.

Light danced through the darkness in a heavenly choreography that left me awestruck.

I gazed through the skylight at the real stars above, to the Creator and Arranger of it all.

"Thank You," I whispered.

That's when it hit me. Set apart means we're chosen to be part of a glorious plan.

God gives each of us a unique sparkle, then places us among others that shine in their own "set apart" ways. 

The result is a constellation that takes your breath away. 

That's what brings Him glory.

"But you are a chosen people...that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God..." 1 Peter 2:9-10

Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God, called to live holy, whole life among a beautiful tribe.

It’s time to come out of the shadows, God’s people.

We were born to shine.