Questions Before the Cross

Recently a Bible study I was doing asked what question we would have for Jesus if He were standing before us.  Truly, I would have a million, but I immediately thought of asking Him, "In light of everything (and since He's all-knowing, He knows exactly what this everything is) how then are believers to live here on earth?" 

"Jesus answered, 'My kingdom is not of this world. If my kingdom were of this world, my servants would have been fighting, that I might not be delivered over to the Jews. But my kingdom is not from the world.'” John 18:36

 Shortly before His death on the cross, Jesus said it Himself that His kingdom was not of this world.  And followers of Jesus are not either,

"they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. " John 17:14.

So, how then are we to live?  Should we fit in with the world?  Should we seclude ourselves from it?

"I do not ask that you take them out of the world, but that you keep them from the evil one.  They are not of the world, just as I am not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth; your word is truth.  As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world." John 17:15-18

There it is, the answer, I believe.  We are not of the world, but Jesus sent us into the world.  And it's not easy to live out.  I struggle with leaning too far one way or the other.  Either falling into too much concern over trivial, worldly things, living too much like the rest of the world does, or I am doing okay living different than this world, but then failing at the "sent into the world" part.  But, it helps to keep this calling clear, at the forefront of my daily life as I engage with the world.  Not of, but sent into.