21st century conservatism

I often find myself feeling anxious before I hang out with my non-Christian friends. Even if they are old and dear friends, we have opposite views and it's like I'm stepping into their territory, a place where I am expected to play by predetermined rules. The eyes of my society bear down on me, watching to see I keep to the permissible. In a conversation about tragedy, someone concludes, "I just try to do my best, to live the best life I can". They have done well; that is what should be said. To point to a better life beyond this one or a God of compassion and justice would be to go heedlessly against the rules. So I smile politely, and the conversation shifts.

It's not always this way. The trick is to remember that every place is his. He reigns over every inglorious situation and I am always his child. My society writes its expectations in ignorance and blindness. But my allegiance is to my King, to his rules, rules of truth and goodness, of right and wrong. His rules trump my society's for they are anchored in truth and they ever will be.