Walking out the Christian life in our everyday lives is a real challenge, and, unfortunately, nothing we do can make the conflicts we face disappear. But each conflict provides us with an opportunity to choose either to blend in with the culture or to stand against it and grow in our relationship with God.
   I never relish the chance to stand out but prefer, rather, to go about my public life unnoticed. God, however, in His own ways, has been showing me that I can't hide forever by keeping to myself. What's the point of believing something if it doesn't affect the way one lives? Faith is only good when we put it into action, and when our actions are consistent, people will notice sooner or later.
   During my sociology class several weeks ago, we discussed cultural norms, some of which become laws, and others of which are notions of how people should conduct themselves as shared by the culture in general. Our homework for the next class was to break a nonlaw-related norm by doing something like cutting in line or eating mashed potatoes with our fingers.
   As I walked to my car after class, I tried thinking of something positive to do. I mused about what a stir someone praying in class would create and laughed-until I felt that God wanted me to do just that! Of course, my first reaction was to talk myself out of such a crazy idea. I mean, who in their right mind would risk making a fool of themselves in front of the entire class when it would be so much easier to simply cut in line? But, coincidentally, God had me listening to a Christian radio station on my journey home that just happened to be discussing going to college. I had only been driving for a few minutes before the host stated that college could be a time for Christians to strengthen their faith if they declared themselves to be Christians from the beginning. This put an end to my lame excuses and left me only with the fact that I was scared to death to get up in front of everyone.
   The next class found me praying like crazy for the courage to follow through. My professor came in, as usual, right before class. Thankfully, God gave me the grace to force myself out of my seat and talk to her. I asked if I could open the class with prayer to fulfill the homework assignment, but she immediately replied, "No!" Resisting the impulse to give up, I pressed, "Why not?" To this she answered, "Because this is a state school, and I don't want to get involved in all that it would entail." "Our homework was to break a cultural norm," I reiterated, "so isn't doing something out of the ordinary the whole point?" At this she stopped and thought for a minute before replying: "Yes… yes, you're right. Okay, you can do it."
   Both disappointed and relieved, I turned to the class, telling them I was going to open with prayer and that anyone could leave if they would be offended. When no one left, I preceded to pray a short prayer, ending with, "in Jesus' Name, amen." Except for an older man commenting that praying in school wasn't breaking a norm back in his day and a woman telling me the following week she enjoyed my prayer, no one said much about it.
   Even though praying in class may not be an earth shattering deed, it represents a major victory in my life: having the courage to stand against the culture (and my own fears) and, most importantly, actually hearing God and following through in obedience. Great things often begin small. If more Christians would make the effort to follow God in even the seemingly insignificant things in life, it would go a long way toward lighting the darkness of this world.