Together we have power…..but together shouldn’t be just like one another in the way we carry our faith and resemble our beliefs. Each person should seek to continue in their own unique giftings and personhood but put on the overlay of Christ in that the rough edges are buffed and the rusty patches, shined, so that we are who God created us to be as individuals but that we come under His lordship and reflect His goodness in all that we carry out from when we became His.
In saying all of this, however, we are cultivated in a culture which is full of compare and contrast in that we all seek to put ourselves up against Hollywood actors and actresses or politicians or POP stars or Pro athletes and in doing so we use a measuring stick that isn’t easy to resemble. It’s like we are using a ruler to measure the fluid ounces in a gallon, you can’t do it. It’s like using a calculator to gage in the temperature in the air. It’s as if we are using scale to see how many miles we have travelled. Everyone wants to have the body of that gorgeous new actor/actress in the latest blockbuster film or the passing capability of Peyton Manning or the voice and dance techniques of Beyonce’, but the more we want those things, the more we become dissatisfied with who God made us to be, someone special, someone unique, someone completely different than anyone else. No one else has your DNA, your fingerprints, your talk, your walk, your personality. Even Identical Twins have totally unique behaviors and dreams and aptitudes….
Recently, I was told about a Discovery or TLC channel show where these people told their story of how they were formed inside the womb, in that two eggs that were supposed to be either identical or fraternal twins, these two eggs migrated together and formed a bond and that when the baby was born it had two different hair colors, two different skin colors or eyes, some were even split down the middle and some of them had skin that looked like a checker board. Wild Stuff! You talk about unique? These were very unique conditions…no one else in the world had these characteristics.
All this to say, that we are individual…there is no team in “I” –No, you didn’t misread that…there is no Team in “I”….and there shouldn’t because we are all created in the image of God, yes, but as different specimens in the lineage of individuality. Hear what the Psalmist says:
139:13-18
For you created my inmost being;
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
you knit me together in my mother's womb.
14 I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
your works are wonderful,
I know that full well.
15 My frame was not hidden from you
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
when I was made in the secret place.
When I was woven together in the depths of the earth,
16 your eyes saw my unformed body.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
All the days ordained for me
were written in your book
before one of them came to be.
17 How precious to me are your thoughts, O God!
How vast is the sum of them!
How vast is the sum of them!
18 Were I to count them,
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
they would outnumber the grains of sand.
When I awake,
I am still with you.
So, if God’s Word says we are different from others then why are we trying to be like everyone else or someone we are not.
I personally have struggled with this all my life and deemed it Chameleon Syndrome….have you ever met someone who is electric in their personality and fun to be around. I mean they just ooze charm, they satiate charisma, they permeate chutzpah! People flock to them, children, adults, seniors, businesspeople, entertainers, everyone. I’m sure all of us know of someone like this….My friend, Michael Hix(a performer at Jonny High’s Music Review in Arlington) He is Electric…he sings, he dances, he performs, he makes friends easily, he impersonates, he elevates his audience….he is the only one of his kind! And yet….other people can sing and dance and perform…many of you can do these same things and yet that doesn’t make you Michael Hix. These characteristics are not mutually inclusive of everyone who has those specific traits, talents or giftings….
It is the same way with our Faith….we have all grown up in church in a different way…but some may have never stepped foot in a church door until the age of 20, 30 , 40, 50 or 80…..our faith journey is unique to us, as unique as we are from each other. So, why isn’t we try to take on the cross of someone else’s experience. When Jesus said that we should take up our cross daily….he didn’t say “Take up MY cross” which many people want to do…they want to beat themselves into a blood holy pulp so to be like Christ….there are even some South American countries and some in Europe who reenact the Crucifixion and some actually gets crucified!!! That’s is a little bit overboard, don’t you think? But we say that, then we pressure ourselves to bear the burdens of each other and of Christ, when Jesus said this, “Take up your cross…” whatever your cross is, take it up….whatever issue or battle you are dealing with…take up your cross and give it to Jesus….He said, “my yoke is easy, my burden is light..” Our faith should be a reflection of who we are as God created us to be…when we come to God..we don’t immediately stop being us. No, we put on the essence of Christ on top of who we are…yes our sin lifestyle, the entanglements of a Fallen world should be changed, removed and cauterized but that doesn’t happen immediately. We are a new creation in that we now have a new outlook on life, we are a new creation in that we have Christ as our personal friend and Lord, we are new creation in that they old ways are gone and we should seek to please God…even though that doesn’t happen all the time… We are a new creation in that the Creator has given us a second Eden
Have you ever put on someone else’s pants accidentally or if you have kids, like me, Put a 3T on an 18month old? It may go on but it’s not the right fit….and the converse is true put an 18 mth-only pants on a 3T…too tight and not right. The same is with our faith….we try to fill the giant proverbial shoes of Billy Graham with our little feet. I got news for you…it ain’t going to happen! Or we try to slip into the perfection that was Jesus by asking “what would Jesus do?” We must seek perfection but not the kind that involves us changing into another person. We don’t need clones of each other walking around…. The point is that we should continue to be unique and yet strive for perfection in Christ but not imitate each other to where our witness is one big mass of people who look, act and talk the same way which is a big turnoff to lost people in the world out there. Nobody likes impersonators, well maybe in Vegas…. but other than entertainers no one wants a copy cat….like the two brothers in the movie, “The Sandlot” where the younger one would says exactly what the older brother says as a mimic….finally, the older brother says….stop it!
The same goes for us in our Christian Faith, you are your faith in that you are specially crafted to be you no matter what…people can sniff out a poser pretty quick….don’t mimic your faith with the great Christian lady you work with or that Deacon you looked up too all your life…or the celebrity evangelist on TV….the only one we should be imitating is God in that He loves people and from that love all other good things flow.
Be You and Your Faith Follow….
Thanks for reading....Please forward to others you know....& become a subscriber to this Blog
Continued Success,
Matthew A. Butter
@thebutterlife
