God wants you to be strange

Lewis tells us about conformity today in A Year with C.S. Lewis.

He tells us about how the fear of being different from society causes us to "bite off our own heads" to keep from being taller than the average. And haven't you seen this at work? I remember being in high school a few years ago and some of my classmates, for fear of being ridiculed, would act like they were not as smart as they really were. Feigning ignorance to be popular. And we all know that if you feign something long enough, it begins to be true. It bothered me to see my bright, inquisitive fellow students pretend not to know an answer, afraid that someone would make fun of them.

Did you know that "holy" means set apart? Different? You might even say that it means "strange". And of course we all know that God wants us to be holy. If you have any doubt, just remember the verse where He commands us to "be holy, as I am holy".

Take the two paragraphs above together, and it's clear that God wants us to be strange. He wants us to follow our passions, which will (by design) be different from each other's. He wants us to become more fully, uniquely ourselves every day. That's why the saints are so peculiar. When you follow Jesus in earnest, you become more fully alive. "Life more abundant" is a little different for each of us.

How are you different from others? Could be you've never given that question serious thought. Could be you were previously afraid to be different.

Could be the time is now to ask Him how to step out in courage and be more yourself than you've ever been before.

God, please free us to be ourselves. Thanks for making us strange.