Holy and Set Apart

I don't struggle with believing anything about the gospel and its promise.
I honestly don't.
N.T. Wright writes in Surprised By Hope that when it comes to such basic belief, it merely comes down to our epistemological assumptions about the world: Do we assume we live in a world where a loving creator cares enough to create life, and who cares enough to intervene and defeat the ultimacy of sin, raising Christ from the dead?

This is simple belief. And beliefs are easy.

What I really struggle with is developing the patterns of life and community that fully embrace and embody the gospel. I struggle with being the bold entrepreneur forging new paths and doubling his master's talents, or buying up the field in order to find the pearl of great worth--to stand apart from where others have tread before me.

The reality is, the majority of my patterns have been shaped by our prevailing culture and its assumptions. Our culture has made me who I am. My church life has mostly been preoccupied with altering some head knowledge and some Sunday practice--like taking the sacrament and helping out with Sunday School occasionally.

But how do I go beyond this? How do I begin to shape the patterns of my life so that they countervail the promises of our culture? How do I reshape my life and stand foursquare against overwhelming pressures? It seems, truthfully, I oughtn't be doing it alone at all. This is a church thing . . . a community thing, but I walk in the reality that community is broken. That I am broken.

How do I stand up and apart when other necessarily aren't? Is there a school for this?

Collect for Vocation in Daily Work
Almighty God our heavenly Father, you declare your glory and show forth your handiwork in the heavens and in the earth: Deliver us in our various occupations from the service of self alone, that we may do the work you give us to do in truth and beauty and for the common good; for the sake of him who came among us as one who serves, your Son Jesus Christ our Lord, who lives and reigns with you and the Holy Spirit, one God, for ever and ever. Amen.