To be in the world, but not of it

This has been on my mind a lot more, since Shanghai. 

Sigh.

It's so hard to be in the world and not be worldly. Sometimes even talking a lot about clothes and appearances and worldly values/things like wanting your kid to be cool and play sports, really distracts me. Sure, during the conversation, I agree with everyone. Yea, I want my kid to play music and sports. Yea, I think that actress is pretty. Yea, I have no idea what brands of jeans exist. Yea, so how much muscle can guys gain in a month? blah blah. It's not what you say or ask, but your overall attitude, or the overall attitude/tone of the people in the conversation. Sometimes the conversation just becomes very worldly--not just because of what we say and talk about, but the attitude/motivation behind it, and then I just feel gross afterwards. And then later I think about the truth of the whole attitude of the conversation, and I realize it's so wrong. I was wrong. Dude, it's not about how cool your kids are, or how smart they are. This life is so fleeting. In the end, it doesn't matter. Your kids' value is not on how cool they are. Your value is not on how cool your kids are. We should love people who aren't cool. who don't play sports or music. who are awkward and not classy. 

I'm not saying that we didn't know that. The people in the conversation were simply stating what they thought was cool. It's totally fine. It's just me; I haven't been deeply rooting my security in Christ...because I came out of the conversation feeling quite self-conscious about how uncool I was, and how un-worldly-savvy I was (how little I knew about the world and its values)

Sigh. I think the problem is that the more time you spend in the world, the more time you will have to spend renewing yourself with the truth afterwards because of how the worldly mentalities will inevitably affect you. 

The more you want to be in the world and change the world, the more (quality) time you have to spend with God, renewing yourself. Or else you'll just get sucked in. 

Another related tangent: On the cruise, there was some crude humor. I didn't know how to react to it. I just got a bit upset, and I thought that was good that I got upset. But at the same time, I wasn't sure if I was being "too religious", as the saying goes. 

But yea, in summary, god-filled conversations are the best. Sometimes Christians have conversations about godly concerns , yet it still seems like God is not in the conversation.