The Journey of Separating

“For the Scriptures say, “You must be holy because I am holy.” - 1 Peter‬ ‭1:16‬

At the beginning of the year, my word was surrender. Now It is mid-year, I have learned a new level of surrender. Sometimes to surrender to Christ, you must become holy. Holy is a biblical term that means to be set apart. In my journey with Christ, I learned that I am not apart of this world so I have to separate myself daily to show Christ is in my life than what the world is offering me. I know this summer I definitely have separated myself from many things. I have found out a lot about separating myself from my normal routine. Before I start I want to clarify that there is good separation and bad separation, but we will focus on the good separation at this moment.

1. Separation = elevation

Separation can be a challenge for anyone. If we ever want to be elevated to a new season or to grow in our lives, we have to separate ourselves from things. Life can be so consuming and bust where we can be blend in with this world. In order to separate from this blending, we have to be transformed. Romans‬ ‭12:2‬ ‭tells us to not copy the behavior or customs of this world but let God transform you into a new creation. You weren’t born as a copy of anything. You were made to be original, authentic, and holy compared to this world.

2. Separation = clarity

during this summer, I stop contacting about 80% of people in my life. Why? I was being distracted by them and not listening fully to God. I chose to listen to distractions than God. I didn’t feel good and need to separate myself. I started praying like Daniel in Daniel 6:10. I found peace as well as clarity from things. Some people, who I thought were friends, were not really my friends. I normally, majority of times, I am the one trying to communicate. I truly believe they don’t ever take the chance to understand that friendships/relationships are built on communication both ways. Sometimes I wish people would hit me up on my phone instead of lying to me saying “they miss me” or “I’ve been so busy”. While they’ve been active on social media, I am so thankful for the clarity to know that some people are in my life for a season and I can press on to concentrate on the lasting relationships.

3. Separation = loneliness

One of my mentors told me this, ”Separation is lonely.” He was right. This summer was very lonely, but the loneliness made me reflect tremendously. I reflect on everything in my life. Besides friends as I mentioned above, I reflect on work, church, and the future. I questioned if the separation was the right thing to do. My great friend David helped me with just this one statement, “Your boldness intimates people, which it should.” I thank God for this confirmation for in the book of Acts the disciples were bold to speak about Jesus. Shouldn’t we as well? Shouldn’t we have the alone time to be with God to pray and boldly say make me holy?

I want to say before I end, we should all have a season of separation. We must choose the separation of Jesus, not of shame. People love to flee when it’s not going their way. People “ghost” everyone without an explanation. When you separate because of shame, you end up damaging yourself even more. That’s why I choose to separate to be with Jesus for even Jesus had to flee to be alone sometimes. If Jesus had to separate at times, so do we.