'You're far more holy than me!'
Says my Mum to me one day, in an off-hand way. Now this struck me.

My Mum is a Christian missionary-turned-church-leader and has been full-time serving the church and training leaders for years. I’m a fresh-outta-uni graduate, I picked the degree that looked most fun, still enjoy going out, making spontaneous decisions and live most days with that 'I'm entirely making this up and don't know what I'm doing' feeling. Not exactly the ‘holy’ type. 

And this is my Mum we're talking about. She gets the brunt of all my unreasonable anger and tired grumpiness, she has seen me grow up and throw stupid tantrums and make all the worst decisions pretending like I know everything. There’s no illusion of your classic ‘holiness’ there either.  

So, what was she talking about??

Well, I think there is something in this. 
You see, we are the generation who can no longer hide behind the walls of the church. We can’t expect to look like ‘godly’ or 'holy' people because we go to church each Sunday. No one buys that anymore. We have to work out what holiness actually is and what it looks like when it’s not in a church (where only 1% of students actually are!). We are the generation who have to try out being as holy in a club as we are in a prayer meeting and as holy when we’re talking to our friends as we are when we’re talking to God.

But don’t worry. Jesus knew we’d have to do this. He’s already been praying for us.

‘My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it’ [John 17:15]

There are no clear and neat lines with this one - no 'set apart’ holy people doing holy things in holy places while other normal people live their normal lives. Holiness happens in the world but does not look the same as it. Jesus doesn't ask us to clean our white clothes and stay away from the mud puddles. He is fully aware that the world is full of mud puddles, and this is where He’s given us to live! Yet this doesn’t exempt us from His prayer of holiness.

‘For them I sanctify myself, that they too may be truly sanctified’

Holiness is the active agent that makes us clean and bright (or sanctified). Anything that Jesus has touched is holy. Therefore we are holy. Not because we’ve nailed it, live perfectly moral lives or go to church each Sunday. We are holy because we have been touched by God. The more we spend time around Him, the more he rubs off on us and the more holy we become. We can't help it - He is wholly Holy.

And holiness is infectious. We are touched by the bright whiteness of God - the holy cleaning agent - and so the people around us can’t help but be touched and cleansed by it too!

Watch out world for a generation touched by God and infectiously holy.