As I was wheeling around the yard on my riding lawn mower today, I was chewing on a verse of Scripture that has come to the forefront of my mind of late.

I Peter 3:15b says, “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect…”

I don’t know about you, but I don’t have people ask me about the hope that I have very often. When Peter wrote these words, he was making a couple of assumptions:

• That we are living our lives in such a way that people notice that something is different.
• That we are living our lives in close enough proximity to outsiders who might notice our lifestyle.

So, if you’re like me and people don’t typically ask you why you have hope and why your life is different, maybe we should check to be sure the two things above are happening in your life.

For me, I can say that I am not living my life in close enough proximity to outsiders for them to notice. Like many Christians, I live my life into a safe, Christian bubble and rarely rub shoulders with “those people.”

Moving forward, my family and I plan to live among “those people” and I will be personally carving time out of my schedule to build relationships with people outside the bubble. It’s hard to taste the salt, when it’s still in the salt shaker!