"If your friend jumped off a bridge, would you jump with them?"

"No, of course not"

Is that really true?

The conversations I hear during a typical high school day are completely filled with peer pressure. There are teenagers who don't even know that they are being pressured. It's the simplicity of doing something just because you're in a certain environment. It's these teenagers filling the mold that they think their friends want them to fit in. It happens every second of every day, I see it all the time.

Here's an example: Let's say you're sitting at the lunch table with a group of people you consider your friends. Your friends start talking about a certain person they don't like, you don't know this person well, but you automatically take the side of your friends. You start saying things about a person you don't even know. Maybe you are saying that you'd never do this, but the sad thing is, is that I've heard and been a part of this conversation countless times.

I started thinking about the million other conversations I hear that take these unique people and put them inside a worldly mold, and it was heart breaking. These people, teenagers, being two completely different people depending on who they are with.

What if we were to stop these conversations? What if we were to say, "No, I'm not going to stand with this. I am standing apart."

That's what I want the strength to do. The strength to stand apart from the world, and be a true representation of Jesus. To truly be His hands and feet. Someone once told me that Christian means, "Little Christ." , and that is exactly what we need to be. Christians need to be the people that stand apart and are noticeable in a crowd. In a crowd of lonely, we are called to be the hope.

This is easier said than done. To simply be ourselves and who God calls us to be. To not fit in. It's hard, but it is a part of every single one of our calling's.

Jesus was torn down, humiliated, he suffered, he went through every possible emotion we could go through, and why? So that He could still call us. He knows the pain that is present in this world, and that is why He takes our hand and calls us. He knows what it's like, he can relate to it.

Next time you find yourself in a situation like this one, remember that Jesus is holding your hand, and that it is okay to stand apart from the crowd.