Sever Your Ties With Modern Culture
There's a difference between knowing the truth and living it. Between acknowledging Christ and actually following Him on the narrow path.
I've spent enough time in fellowship with people seeking truth to see this disconnect clearly. You can't simultaneously pursue God wholeheartedly while remaining entangled in a culture that has severed its ties from godliness. The culture and infrastructure of modern life—the city-layouts, apps, habits, relationships, and rhythms—actively works against spiritual formation.
It's time to make a choice. You cannot serve both God and the patterns of a fallen world.
The Cultural Trap
Modern culture normalizes what is unholy. In New York, alcoholism was celebrated as sophistication—I drank daily for a month and no one questioned it. In Austin and Denver, drug use is disguised as spiritual enlightenment through ayahuasca ceremonies and mushroom trips. Even in Texas, with churches everywhere, finding people genuinely serious about following Christ is remarkably difficult.
Be very careful about the cultures you surround yourself with.
We've fallen far from the way of the Tree of Life, and the culture tells us this is just "being human." That sin is normal because we're all fallen.
Sin doesn't have to be normal. It doesn't have to be your default. Unholy culture dominates because leaders have rejected God's design for human flourishing.
The Hard Truth About Separation
Severing ties with sinful culture requires rethinking everything:
Your friendships. Most people in your current circle are not walking toward Christ—they're walking away from Him or standing still. They will pull you back into old patterns because your transformation threatens their comfort with compromise. See: Keep Your Crew Tight and Holy for guidance on building genuinely supportive spiritual friendships.
Your entertainment. The content you consume shapes your desires. If it celebrates what God calls sin, it's shaping you in the wrong direction. See: Recognize and Resist Sinfrastructure for how platforms are engineered to maximize temptation.
Your work environment. Does your employment align with your spiritual ideals? Or does it require you to compromise daily?
Your romantic standards. You cannot marry someone who doesn't follow Christ wholeheartedly. Being "equally yoked" isn't a suggestion—it's a requirement for spiritual health. A lukewarm Christian or nonbeliever will drag your spiritual life down.
Your definition of fun. If your recreation depends on compromising God's standards, you need new recreation.
Look around any major city—Austin, New York, San Francisco, Paris, London. You'll find different forms of lukewarmness and direct rebellion to God's will. The default way people live, have fun, and pursue happiness is materially focused and spiritually destructive.
Break Free From The 'Relentless Cult of Novelty'
Nobel laureate and Orthodox Christian Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn identified a destructive pattern in modern culture: "The Relentless Cult of Novelty". He observed that for decades, world literature, music, painting and sculpture have exhibited "a stubborn tendency to grow not higher but to the side, not toward the highest achievements of craftsmanship and of the human spirit but toward their disintegration into a frantic and insidious novelty."
This cult of novelty prioritizes what is new over what is true, good, or beautiful. It's the cultural engine behind our obsession with the latest trends, technologies, and ideologies—regardless of their moral worth. Solzhenitsyn saw this pattern emerging in pre-revolutionary Russia, where avant-garde artists called for destroying all traditional culture, demanding that "literature should start anew on a blank sheet of paper."
The same spirit pervades today's culture. We're told that old moral standards are outdated, that traditional gender roles are oppressive, that biblical sexuality is archaic. The new is automatically assumed to be better, while wisdom accumulated over millennia is dismissed as irrelevant.
This relentless pursuit of novelty conceals "an unyielding and long-sustained attempt to undermine, ridicule and uproot all moral precepts." Behind seemingly innocent cultural experimentation lies deep hostility toward spirituality itself.
Breaking free from this cult means:
- Choosing timeless truth over trending ideas
- Valuing proven wisdom over fashionable theories
- Embracing traditions that have guided souls toward God for centuries
- Resisting the pressure to constantly reinvent yourself according to cultural demands
As Solzhenitsyn warned, if we submit to this downward slide and abandon "the great cultural tradition of the foregoing centuries together with the spiritual foundations from which it grew," we contribute to "a highly dangerous fall of the human spirit on earth."
Building Holier Foundations In Your Life
Separation isn't comfortable—you'll feel lonely, misunderstood, and face pressure to "lighten up." But as you sever ties with sin-celebrating culture, actively build connections to righteousness:
- Seek fellowship with people genuinely seeking God, not playing Christian on Sundays
- Find mentors who can guide you through counter-cultural living See: Study Wise Spiritual Elders
- Create new rhythms for rest that make continually connecting with God part of your daily routine See: Make God Your Best Friend
- Choose entertainment that feeds rather than starves your soul
The path gets easier as you build spiritual infrastructure to replace what you're leaving behind. But you must be willing to leave first. You'll gain alignment between your beliefs and reality, freedom from destructive dependencies, and peace that comes from living according to God's design.
Reflection and Practice
Ask yourself as you navigate cultural choices:
- Does this activity draw me toward God or away from Him?
- Am I choosing this from freedom or from addiction/pressure?
- Would I be comfortable with Jesus participating in this with me?
- Is this building my character or compromising it?
Our late‑stage secular world will not fill your cup or bring you closer to God. It was never designed to. Sever your ties with sinful culture—daily. Choose the narrow path over social comfort.
"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." — Romans 12:2