Stop trying to be cool
How the desire to fit in can tempt you to turn your back on Jesus.
A few years ago now, I was a High Schooler. As a teen, I learned a few quick things about what students around me considered cool and not cool:
What's cool:
- Acting like you don't really care about anything
- Talking about people behind their backs
- Talking about how wild your weekend was
- Being exclusive and not including anyone outside your group
What's not cool:
- Standing up for what you believe (especially as a Christian)
- Saying, "I don't like to bring people down, I like to build them up"
- Being nice
- Looking out for others and being inclusive
I may have gone to a school of particularly not-so-lovely people. But, assuming not much has changed, if you're a Christian teen who wants to be socially accepted by the masters of cool, you will eventually face a dilemma:
A. Try and be cool, but compromise your beliefs
B. Don't worry about being cool
Which one are you choosing at the moment?
1 Corinthians 13:6-7 says, "Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres."
Delighting in evil is when you join in the laughter at that kid no-one likes. It's when you put others down to make yourself feel better. It's when you deny Jesus so you can be accepted by your peers.
Don't be like that.
Instead, be the kind of person who doesn't care about cool. The kind of person who protects, trusts, hopes and perseveres. A person like Jesus, who didn't try and fit in with the "important" people, but reached out to help the weak, to include the broken, and to comfort the lonely.
If you're a Christian, don't try and be like the cool kids. Try and be like Jesus. You may not get the acceptance you want in the school yard, but you will get a warm welcome from Jesus when you finally meet him face-to-face.
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