Separation From The World?

"In weighing this question he (George Muller) was impressed with seven reasons or motives, which lead him to these tours....6.  To promote separation from the world and deadness to it, and so to increase heavenly-mindedness in children of God; at the same time warning against fanatical extremes and extravagances, such as sinless perfection while in the flesh." A.T. Pierson, George Muller of Bristol:  His Life of Prayer and Faith

I have been increasingly aware of the fact that I am seemingly becoming more enamored of the world and engaged in it rather than less.

If I look at my life in the intervening 10 years - and it has been quite a 10  years stretch - I find myself increasingly enmeshed in the things of the world rather than the things of God.  Can I honestly say that my life increasingly a testimony to God, that I am growing in holiness and becoming dead to the things of the world?  Or, as seems more apparent, am I becoming increasingly more a part of this world rather than less of this?

Are my entertainments and interests more of God or of the world?  When I seek to spend time, is the first thought to improve myself or merely to entertain myself?  Am I leading my family more towards God or less?  Am I mistaken more for a follower of Christ or just another person that is working their way through the world, a sort of fellow traveler?

What I do not seek in any of this is that uncomfortable disapproving holiness that makes people self-conscious and too often is an impediment to the Gospel.  What I am seeking is fruit of a believer in Christ, fruit which I should be seeing.  Fruit which should be the outcome of a life of separating myself more from the world and worldly amusements rather than seeking them.

Am I willing to pay the cost?  Am I willing to cut off those things which do not edify - perhaps not that they are intrinsically bad but rather that the prevent the better, the life of Christ in me?  Or when Paul calls us to be in the world but not of, do I merely look at it, consider it another unattainable perfection, and simply carry on? 

Ultimately how serious am I about Christ and His mission?