Sometimes we like “different,” and sometimes we don’t.

But different in Christianity doesn’t always show up in how we look. Not always.

1 Peter 4 is a challenging reminder of how different should look in our world.

It is to bless and not curse. It is to understand the sobering effect of suffering and realize it is time to treasure Jesus. It is the sobering realization that what we treasured in this world is simply junk.

To live differently is to have the end in mind. It sobers us. We consider our mortality and how we want to live in light of that mortality.

It is to love deeply. To honor others. Things the world has no idea in the deepest forms of those words to accomplish. We move away from the shallow… and find the depth of blessing. To bless our enemies. Anyone can bless their friends. There is a depth to blessing your enemy.

What makes me different needs to be something of more depth than I have ever known. It is in the very core of how I think and then I will choose to respond to adversity in my life. THAT is where “difference” can be truly seen.