Standing Apart

The other day I had a high school moment. I said hello to someone and they avoided eye contact and barely spoke to me. There was a sudden feeling of inadequacy that came over me….what did I do? Wasn’t I cool enough? Was she avoiding conversation because I wasn’t invited to something that I knew about? Something I wanted to be invited to? Something the “cool girls” were doing?? I ranted to my husband, poor man. (Here we are, 15 years old again! Haha!)! After a few minutes of rational thinking…it takes awhile…I realized that I had imagined the whole thing!!! But, this experience reminded me of the daily battle of self esteem that we fight.

We all want to be part of the crowd. Standing out is painful and lonely. It invites pity and gossip. But, when you think about it…to do something of significance we need to stand apart from the crowd. We need to follow that path that God has planned for us. He didn’t create us to be lemmings…followers, no matter where the others go. When we go in the direction of God’s will, we will be alone…but, with Him. It won’t be lonely. We can’t be afraid of it. If we are, we can’t do what He has planned for us. Unless we stand apart, we can’t fulfill the secret desires of our heart…those dreams we are scared to pursue.

Every one of us has been created for a reason. There is a great quote by Mark Twain…”The two most important days of your LIFE are the day you were BORN, and the day you find out WHY?” Some of us have a big task ahead, and some of us have many small tasks…all of them significant. God has created us with the specific gifts and talents that we need for those tasks. Whether you have the gift of leadership, hospitality, intercession, or wisdom….whether you are good with music, children, relationships…good with your hands, artistic…these are all gifts you have been given. For a reason. It does no good to wish we had other gifts…it’s a waste of time.

But the biggest waste of time is squelching those dreams in order to be part of the crowd….

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