What I mean by living to one’s self is living in the world, as in it — not of it.

— William Hazlitt, 16th century English essayist

I enjoyed a spare moment late one night this week and decided to catch up on news of the day by reading the CNN website. I was sorry to learn that the world had lost Ann Bancroft, the stage and film star known for her voracious and vulnerable roles. She died of cancer at the age of 73. But did you know that after a long, grueling and heroic battle with a cancerous brain tumor, the world lost Dr. Rich Emerine, one of the most dedicated of Christian men and impassioned family practice physicians ever to serve our nation in the U.S. Navy? He died nearly 4 years ago and his parents have recently published a book of his life and memoirs. Proceeds will fund scholarships for kids who wish to enter the medical field.

Although they lived and worked in completely different worlds, both contributed in significant ways to the lives of people in their respective spheres and made use of their God-given talents. Both are missed terribly by friends and family members who knew and loved them best.

I find the concept of worlds rather interesting — along with the ways technology is creating an interconnected feature for the world as never before. In so many ways we are one global community, yet we always will be people who build our own worlds within our communities, cultures and our nations.

While technology continues to draw us together, I cannot forget that from the moment I became a Christian at 14, I was urged to live in the world by my youth leaders. That meant connecting with people, investing in their lives and serving them—without embracing behaviors that conflict with the Christian values to agree to follow.

God’s challenge is intended to serve those in need, to spread His redeeming love and ever-increase the dependence and interaction God desires with each of us. Ironic, isn’t it, that only when we are fish out of water can we experience dramatic growth, witness miracles or watch the best in people develop.

Moving out of a familiar world and into unfamiliar territory intimidates many people. It is not uncommon for Christians to retreat from, criticize or waste time longing for a life they think appears more glamorous than their own.

As always, God has taken the concept of worlds — and what it meant to my own growth and development — out of the realm of theory and made it a practical day-to-day experience. During the school year I work with teenagers and at some point almost daily I smile at this fascinating world.

Things have changed since I walked the halls as a high school student. The clothing, slang, music, even the approach to preparing students for their post-high school lives has changed. I am both challenged by and contribute daily by this new world, even though I am at brief moments a 46-year-old fish out of water who is learning the joy of swimming in brand new ways.

As we move in and out of our various worlds, let us not only pray for courage but ask God to actively use us. I like the example set by the Religious Society of Friends, better known as the Quakers. They have a marvelous way of managing that delicate balance of living in the world but not allowing it to remake them. They do this by refusing to compartmentalize the sacred and the secular. Instead, they view all of their daily experiences as meaningful, sacred, and significant—whether they are car-pooling or brokering a new union contract.

Let us not waste one more moment longing for membership in an unreachable private world. Let us make our own worlds invaluable and deeply satisfying. Let us venture out to share what we know with others who desire understanding and compassion.