Romans 12:1-2

Romans 12:1-2 
English Standard Version (ESV)

  The problem with living sacrifices, someone once said, is that they keep crawling off the altar. 

  It's hard and yet easy to imagine one's life as a living sacrifice.  In some ways, it's our breathing in and breathing out.  We are always seeking to renew our minds, to grow in knowledge and wisdom about how we live as Christians in today's world.  We're seeking knowledge, to better inform our spiritual lives.
  In other ways, it's so hard to know what it means to live a life that is holy and acceptable to God.  How do we resist conforming to the world?  By what basis do we know what is good and acceptable and perfect?  Scripture guides us and the Spirit leads us, but we often end up in ambiguous places with uncertainty about what is right and wrong.
  Being a Christian isn't easy.  It means that we dwell in a land of uncertainty, never 100% positive where God is calling us, but always completely sure that God is calling us, that God is at work, that Jesus Christ is Lord and will be ultimately victorious over sin and death.  And because God is all of those things, then God is interested in our daily lives, and God is calling us to live in such a way that not only glorifies God but also draws us closer.  We all do this a little differently, and we have wonderful freedom in Christ to serve in the places we are, just as we are, uniquely and wonderfully different.  My call is different than yours, and we each are part of the body of Christ. 
  So let us give thanks for diversity in the church, and may we endeavor to listen a little more closely to how God is at work and calling us forward.