Holiness

When did Christians stop taking holiness seriously?  Or more appropriately, when did I stop taking holiness seriously?

What does holiness look like?  I was reminded of this again in my reading of 2 John Chapter 2 today, where John talks about the holiness of God (and His righteousness, a similar term for the purposes of my musing).  Or perhaps a better question is what should holiness look like in us?

Holiness in God is fairly clear in Scripture - it is the utter lack of sin and the complete presence of righteousness in God, a thing which is likened to a blindingly pure light that no-one can look at.  But what does holiness look like for us humans, mucking around in the world that we live in?

Is it manifested in a stiff upper lip which will not engage in any way in the culture?  Is it manifested in living in a way that looks like a thousand years ago, eschewing any technology or anything that is modern?  Is it being so soft and yielding and a non-entity of which people say "That X, he's a pretty nice guy - pretty irrelevant for doing anything of substance, but a pretty nice guy."

Possibly - maybe - one can come up with a group of men and women of whom one could say are "holy" - but they are all religious folks:  John Paul II, Mother Theresa, John MacArthur to name a few.  But holiness in these cases always seems to be connected with a religious way of life (e.g. religion is your life) which is far removed from the way that most of us actually live.

So what does holiness look like in the life of the rest of us, the ones that have to live in the regular world?  And more importantly, where are the role models for those who are coming up in the faith?