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• What are you going to be when you grow up? What are you now?

• In the Old Testament, God calls Israel to be a "kingdom of priests, a holy nation."
• Peter calls us to "put away all malice, guile, insincerity, envy, slander …"
• The question is, "What are we going to be?", not "What are we going to do?"

• Being holy is what growing up in the full sense means, according to Peter.
• Only one thing is worth caring about: "You shall be a holy nation."
• We all have our "holy moments," when we truly hunger for holiness.
  - Illustration: When the movie Gandhi came out, there wasn't a sound in the theater when the movie ended, "as deep and telling a silence as anything I think I've ever heard," says Buechner. Gandhi's life had something we all long for.

• Those who founded our nation dreamed a high and holy dream.
• We can take a step toward "national holiness" by following Peter's instruction.
• It's never too late-or too early-to start practicing this.
• "I think we belong to holiness, even when we're not even sure it exists."

• We know not only that it's more blessed to give than receive, but also more fun.
  - Illustration: When Henry James said goodbye to a young nephew, his words of wisdom were simply, "Willie, there are three things that are important in human life. The first is to be kind. The second is to be kind. The third is to be kind."
• Though kindness isn't the same as holiness, it's very close to holiness.

• The kind moment itself is a door that holiness enters through. May it enter us all.