Jesus secretly talked to a religious leader and explained the following truth:
“Things that are born of flesh are flesh. Things born of the Spirit are Spirit. The wind blows but you don’t know where it comes from or where it goes. So are those who are born of the Spirit.“
The scripture calls Christians a “peculiar people.” When you look at people from the Bible, you can see how this is true.
Taking the New Testament alone, we start with John the Baptist, who wore animal skins and ate locusts and honey, preaching out in the wilderness when he could have been quite the upstanding priest by following in his father’s footsteps. Paul was a terrorist and a murderer before being changed by Christ. Then he’s beaten and left for dead. He’s bitten by a snake and lives. Peter’s shadow heals people. Phillip is literally translated, before anyone ever thought of Star Trek, and shows up in a totally different city.
Let’s just take Jesus for a moment. He spits in the dirt and makes mud to put it in a dude’s eye to heal him. He calls a dead guy from the grave, still wrapped in grave clothes. He was born in a stable and changed water into wine.
Peculiar people indeed.
How often are we willing to be weird in front of the world? It seems to me that most of the Christians I know are fairly strange and cannot really explain half the things they are called to. Those who are led by the Spirit say and do some strange things. They go to different countries on a whim. They give when they should take. They stand silent when they should speak. They speak whey should be silent. They hang out with other weird people.
The world should see Christians as strange people they’re not really sure about.
Unfortunately we have much of American Christianity that seems intent upon putting forth an image of normal, middle class American life. For many Christians, anything outside of that norm feels just as strange as it would to the rest of the world. Sadly, some even do all they can to distance themselves from those weirdos.
Of course the only people who act so strange are completely sold out to Christ. So, to many Christians, only missionaries and professional ministers (maybe) are to be that sold out to God. They don’t have to really meet those people or be in close contact with them, but they’ll rent movies about them at Blockbuster. And the result is many get very uncomfortable running into sold out Christians in their every day lives.
God desires a people, not just a few individuals we can later make saints, who are completely sold out to Him on every level and ultimately express that commitment in some very weird ways. You see, God is rather creative, and He likes to buck the systems and expectations of men. He likes to show off and do things that surprise and interest people.
So many are looking for mystery, a real life mystery that is lost. People try to look for this mystery in Harry Potter or Lord of the Rings or comic books or other entertaining venues. But what would they say if they saw mysterious and fantastical things from a community, a group of people that they couldn’t explain, who live in this world but seem to live in another all at the same time? It would frighten and excite them, anger them possibly. But that is who we are to be, just like those we read about in the Old and New Testaments, a nation of prophets and priests that supernaturally live in a natural world.
I love fantasy books like Lord of the Rings and the Robert Jordan books. But the older I get (and yeah, I’m old …), the more I am amazed and in wonder at biblical stories. These people actually did these things. This isn’t some fantastical tale about another world with crazy creatures. This stuff really happened! The next time you read one of those miraculous stories in the scripture, ordinary people doing extraordinary things, pause and meditate on those events. Use your imagination to flesh it out and make it real. Meditate on the fact that those things actually happened …
And they still could to a people totally in love with God, conscious only of His will and desires.
My challenge to you this week? Don’t be afraid to be weird, to be different, to be unique and creative however God leads you. It is your gift to me and to the world.
Peace.