The other day I sent my wife an encouraging text that said, “Sometimes I have to REMIND myself that I don’t have to do what EVERYONE ELSE is doing.” Her response was, “that’s not a prob for you”, and it “doesn’t make being a square peg any easier.” My follow up to her was, “but at least you know it’s ok being one…” As I thought about our interaction more, I reflected on how absolutely opposite my wife and I are, then I shot her another text saying, “we’re not even the same shape…you’re a square and I’m a triangle fighting to navigate this round world.”
Why do we fight to be something we’re not, so we can fit into a predetermined shape we were never created to fit in? When things don’t line up for us like they seam to for others, we get frustrated and discouraged, and start to believe we are failures. I heard a minister once say that we were created with a unique fingerprint to leave an imprint in this world that no one else can leave. Psalms 139:14 says, “I am fearfully and wonderfully made”, and 1 Peter 2:9 says we are, “a peculiar people” (KJV).
There is no one else in this world created like you, but you. The shape we have is not a good shape, bad shape, right shape or wrong shape. We are the exact shape we were created and intended to be. We were never meant to fit in someone else’s shape spot. We have to make our own mark in this world, create our own space and atmosphere that is unique only to us, so we can leave an imprint no one else can make.
I believe God has given us the framework to walk this out in Christ. In Luke 10:27 Jesus said, “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind, and your neighbor as yourself.” If we just stop and set aside all our conditioning, all our preconceived thoughts and all the insanity we see on television as it pertains to Christianity, we can see the simplicity in the shape we are created to be.
The first attribute of our shape is we were created to be different on purpose. There isn’t a heavenly assembly line cranking out humans with replaceable widgets. Secondly, we are created with a distinct purpose. Although we may walk out parallel, cooperative and complimentary lives, each stands alone like no other. Third, we are created to love, our creator first, then all the other shapes in our generation. None of this is by accident and I wouldn’t even begin to tell you I know how all the shapes in the world are to fit together, but I do know this we are here together for a greater purpose than ourselves.
So…the next time you’re feeling normal, out of place, not knowing where you fit in or why others fit more perfectly than you, just remember you’re not the wrong shape. You’re probably trying to plug into someone else’s shape. There is one place your shape will always plug in…a love relationship with God the Father, His Son & the Holy Spirit, as well as all of His creation. This is the shape you were destined to be. Isn’t it time to “GET IN SHAPE”?
James Miller Jr
“Missionary to a Generation”
*Published in the September 25th, 2014 issue of the Port Aransas South Jetty newspaper.
via “GET IN SHAPE” – Grace Church of Port Aransas.
