And Noah did this. He did everything that God had commanded him.

Genesis 6:22 (CSB)

This morning one of my friends made a social media post asking others to discuss how we can follow God’s truth when the rest of the world is “going their own way”, when the rest of the world thinks we’re crazy. As I thought on his question, I was reminded of a post I’d made a few years ago dealing with the same concept. I’d like to share it with you today:

As the people of his time mocked and criticized him, I imagine that even Noah wondered a time or two about what God was asking him to do. It seemed crazy to everyone around him – building a massive boat on dry land in a place that had never seen so much as a puddle linger on the ground let alone a flood. Then again, I imagine as the time grew nearer, Noah must have thought the other people were crazy for not listening to the warning he gave.

I know that as I learn to better navigate the world God’s way, I find myself thinking more and more that the ways of the people around me are crazy. I find myself asking God questions like,

• Why can’t people just love each other like You us?
• Why won’t they forgive each other and be set free of resentment or anger?
• Don’t they see that being faithful servants to each other is Your design for us?
  • That collaboration brings healing?
  • That the light of truth is needed most where suspicion and distrust have resided in the past?

I go on and on some days laying before God what I see or hear that goes against His plans for us, and I ask often for wisdom and also patience to navigate the strange customs of man that no longer make sense to me without compromising what He, the One who knows us best, the Lord of all creation, has told me in His Word is right and good and acceptable in His eyes.

In these times, God reminds me of Romans 12:2 – be not conformed to this world but transformed by the renewing of your mind.

While it is often more difficult to push back against cultural norms and long-standing traditions – like trying to walk uphill on ice pushing a boulder while everyone else seems to be shoving the boulder back down – than it is to just go with them, sliding down that slippery slope is not what God has called me to do or you to do either.

Brothers and Sisters, God calls us and equips us:

• to rise up on wings of eagles (Isaiah 40:31);
• to be free of the chains of this world (John 8:36);
• to be light in the darkness (Matthew 5:14).
• to be set apart, to follow Him and not the world (2 Corinthians 6:17, Jeremiah 1:5, Luke 9:23, Mark 1:17).
• with all we need to be who He made us to be and not who the world would corrupt us to become (Philippians 4:13, 19, Psalms 138:3, Joshua 1:9).

Though my human heart flutters with worry at times, the Spirit comforts me, quickly reminding me that I have no need to fear, that I follow a Risen Savior who conquered the grave, that in Him I can do all things.

Beloved, when we work His way for His glory, though we may not understand it at the time, all things will work for good according to His plan (Isaiah 55:8-9, Jeremiah 29:11).