Location. Location. Location.
It’s the first rule of real estate. You put a similar building in a low-priced residential area and the building is worth less than it would be if you put the exact same building in an appreciating market. Bottom line: Real estate value is based on where that piece of real estate is situated.
Turns out a similar situation is true for human values. Put a man in a bad environment and he will take on the traits of that environment even when he’s a good man. The only catch with the human law is that you often can’t tell a good environment from a bad one by just looking.
Lot found this out the hard way.
Sodom was described as ‘like the Lord’s Garden’1.
The reality couldn’t have been further from the truth. Regardless of the landscaping, Sodom was the epicenter of unbelievable evil and that wasn’t because the proportion of lilacs was ten percent off.
In choosing to live in Sodom, Lot inadvertently planted himself among the worst of the worst of humankind. Abram on the other hand, took the less picturesque view, chose to stay surrounded by like-minded people and came out on the right end of the real eastate deal2.
I recently was thinking over the word Holy. Most of us get a superlative picture when that word comes up. We think celestial beings and spiritual scenarios, but in its simplest form, Holy means, set apart. consecrated, a cut above. In practical use, Holy would be considered different, probably even weird.
Conversely, the opposite of Holy is common. Stop for just a second. When we think of common what do we think of? We think of something easy, available, or wildly pervasive. Common is what majority of the people do and often what society (again the majority) considers normal.
The Christian walk is a call to not be common and that is made a lot easier by surrounding ourselves with like-minded folks who don’t bow to the cult of common.
In Sodom, Lot succumbed to their common ways up to the point of offering his daughters to a bunch of perverts who were intent on destroying him3. Unfortunately, his decision to go with what was popular when choosing a location ended up costing him literally everything.
21st Century planet earth is overwhelmingly common. People who insist on integrity and hold on to faith are considered naïve or weird, as the only possible way of getting ahead, according to the majority is by being adroit in the ways of men.
Abram didn’t care for what was common or in vogue. Even though he had the tougher road, he was the one who ended up having to bail Lot out… on more than one occasion4.
Easily missed in the message of Lot’s story, is the message that in a world where likes and follows are the new measure of influence, it’s easy to pander to the crowd. But easy has never been God’s plan for his children.
Abram’s journey to Abraham was anything but easy but he stayed grounded by staying closest to his own people. This was a man so militant about surrounding himself with like minded people that he crossed international borders to get a wife for his son.
When scripture talks about bad company corrupting good character, it isn’t kidding. Lot found this out. Abraham on the other hand engineered his location by keeping the right people around him, a move God honored by making him an example for generations to come.
Remember that the next time you’re tempted to chuck your values because common is banging on your door.
You may not be able to move based on real estate prices, but you can engineer your environment to allow in the right voices, a move that is always worth it.
1 Gen 13 v 10
2Gen 13 v 14
3Gen 19 v 8
4Gen 18 v 32
4Gen 14 v 16
Have you ever compromised on a deeply entrenched value because you got around the wrong people?
Let me know. Comment below.