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A missed class reunion started a recent unplanned trip down recollection road. My mind wandered through the halls of the old high school that was my educational home for two years, past the mammoth length of wooden planks and muddy construction zones then a quick left into to the new high school that was built during my sophomore year on the parking lot of the old high school. Then my minds eye sheds a tear as the old character filled structure (condemned eight times) is dismantled and hauled away.
I recall photography and aviation classes - theater productions and work schedules - my first car and my first experience driving a bus (oops, please disregard that last experience).
These were the years of my strongest expressions of being a teenage non-conformist. I never seemed to be interested in the same things as my peers. Many things they liked to do I had no problems saying no to. They wore trendy clothes while I wore either overalls or a t-shirt with an unbuttoned and untucked flannel shirt over it with well used blue jeans.
While I was home reading, my peers were enjoying cruising main. While they drank themselves into a stupor, I was serving chicken parts at the local Chicken Hut. I didn’t seem to lack friends though. In fact, I had one classmate say that I was part of the largest clique that he had ever seen. It was possible to see me talking with one of the most popular people in my class one minute and one of the ‘unknown’ the next.
My peers had no trouble knowing where I stood on things (I was quite willing to share my views) and there came a sometimes grudging respect with that knowledge. There were the occasional verbal barb lofted in my direction from various individuals that didn’t seem to like the ease of movement between society’s elite and outcasts.
I didn’t see myself as either popular or despised. There was just this general acceptance of who I was and, for whatever reason, this seemed good enough to me. I own no sports pins, I won no royalty - it didn’t really matter to me.
You know, come to think of it, I had a pretty significant example.
Jesus didn’t do things the way everyone else did them - He didn’t party like the publicans, He didn’t steal like the tax collectors, He wasn’t self-righteous like the Pharisees. Yet there were people in each group that were drawn to Him. They had no question about the fact that He was unique and there was something about that difference that drew humankind to Him.
He never sought popularity, He didn’t sway with the opinion of others, He was comfortable with who He was - and it showed. He was real, honest and unperturbed by the verbal barbs lofted in His direction by those who didn’t seem to like the ease of movement between the elite and outcasts of the society in which He found Himself. Yet instead of pettiness and hate, He responded in love.
One of the most incredible verses in Scripture is “Do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is - his good, pleasing and perfect will.” (Romans 12:2 - NIV)
We are not to live according to the style or manner of the world we live in. When everyone is trying to keep up with a mental ideal of perfection, we may decide there are more important things to be concerned about. While others keep everything they earn, we might give in order to help someone who has a need. While some will resort to putting other people down we might reach out a hand in friendship.
“A peculiar people.” That’s what we’re called. Not non-conformists for the sake of simply being different, but non-conformists because we are willing to be identified with Christ above any other friendship, social standing or personal gain.
Being a non-conformist may seem like hard work, maybe it doesn’t seem natural. When you renew your mind by reading and thinking about God’s Word you will begin to be transformed. Suddenly you will discover that you are out of step with everyone else because you have found a different drummer to march to. It might even amaze you when you see the places you’re marching to.
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