The Unique You

The essence of normal is the status quo, being just like everyone else—in how we look, what we wear, what we like, what we buy, what we watch, where we go on vacation, what we do for fun. Being normal is safe. And easy. It doesn’t require much work or effort or change on our part. But it always leads to mediocrity.

When we strive to be just like everyone else, we never have a chance to be special. When you start to embrace and even celebrate how special and different God made you, you can begin to do extraordinary things. You can begin to see yourself through His eyes. You can begin to live in the uniqueness with which you were created. You can be motivated and inspired to go against the grain.

What does that mean? When everyone around you is picking on someone, stand up for that person. When everyone around you is using foul language, say kind things. When you see injustice and everyone else turns a blind eye, try to make it right.

Going against the norm can also mean having a different outlook on life than others. When everyone around you is working eighty hours a week so they can one day retire and start enjoying life, you can do something different to start living well in the moment. And instead of keeping up with the Joneses, you can be grateful for what you have right now.

You matter too much to God to be just like everyone else.

It’s time to circle back to our identity in God. He created each of us in a unique way for a reason. We are each different in how we look, how we think, how we create, how we process information. We also have different life experiences, good or bad.

Never say, “God must have made a mistake with me” or “I wasn’t created the way I should have been.” God would disagree.

Whatever obstacles you are facing, whatever struggle you have with not fitting in, whether you feel you aren’t pretty enough, strong enough, big enough, fast enough, or smart enough, know that you are not an accident or a mistake. You are fearfully and wonderfully made.

What makes you different, special, unique?

How can you more fully live out the way that God made you?