Sunday, May 12, 2019

Unique


We all have different beliefs. We can go to the same churches, same schools of theology, same family, and yet, still have different beliefs. It is because God created us all to be unique individuals. He didn’t want us all to be robots that He could program to be a specific way. Our society today is trying to diminish our uniqueness and tries to impose on us to all be the same. This is why I still subscribe to the idea that we must listen to the right voices in life.

Recently on social media, I have noticed that people are berating others for their differences in beliefs and thoughts and opinions. (I usually want to tell most of those people not to ever watch a college basketball game with me because as a Duke fan, I will not adhere to their losing team but I resist.) For some people, it’s because if they begin to change some of their core beliefs, then they think they will begin to change their core values. That’s not always true. For others, change is scary. It leads to growth and it leads to change into the unknown, and if we were all honest, change is scary because the unknown is scary.

It all comes down to fear. We fear what we don’t’ know. It’s easier to argue for what we don’t know as we believe it will keep us safe, but Jesus didn’t call us to safety. Jesus doesn’t always lead us to what we know, but many times he leads us into the unknown, which leads us to needing to trust Him. When we fear, we don’t trust. People who berate, call names to others, or argue with simplistic answers fear just as much as those who refuse to change. All of them lack trust in others and in God.

Lack of trust comes when we refuse to communicate. I have noticed that so many people are angry and just yell or make a point and argue foolishly on social media. If we are all unique and admire each person for their differences, then we will actually communicate with others, which means we speak, listen, and understand that a person may not change his or her mind but we can respect others for their own individual stance.

A team must take various individuals and make them work as one. A church is a body that must take various individuals and make them work as one. A military must take various individuals and make them work as one.  The only way any group or team can work as one is for each individual to use his or her own unique gifts and talents and implement them into the group. The other part is allowing others to use their own gifts and talents. We may have to sacrifice something we treasure, but it is better to sacrifice an ideal than a person.

Let me be clear and transparent. I understand that some people may be advocating for a certain sin to be accepted by Christians. That's not what I'm advocating. The Bible is clear. We are to communicate with love when people want to advocate that sin is not sin. If you read enough social media posts, you will realize that most of them are not posted with love, but with anger and hate. No one will listen to anger and hate, no matter how correct the idea is. 

Jesus took a raggedy group of men and created the best leaders in the world who started the church and continued Jesus’s ministry. They all sacrificed.  They all worked together. May we all learn to teach others what we think and believe in a mature and wise way and show the world that even with our differences, the church can work as one and lead many people to Jesus.

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