Living Outside The Circle

But He is unique and who can turn Him?--Job 23:13

God is unique! You are His unique creation! Do you accept your uniqueness? In the course of my life as a believer, I have met people who would be considered by most to be “odd.” God creates man, man bands together, man determines his concept of what is normal using the criteria of the similarities shared by the majority, and some are left outside the circle of behaviors that constitute this notion of normalcy. Are you one of those out-of-the-ordinary people? Do you laugh at inappropriate times or talk when you should listen? Spill your deepest secrets to strangers? Did you have a ponytail when others did not or a shaved head when others had a ponytail? Are you loud in a crowd? Quiet at a party? When everyone is wearing suits, do you show up in a tee shirt? Do you laugh though no one understands your humor? Do you make people uncomfortable with the way you rearrange your silverware and organize your condiments in the restaurant? Do you invite people over and proceed to make them sit and listen to your latest recording of locomotive trains as loudly as the stereo will play?  Do you feel like you have to play the people game every day? Are you the odd one out? Do you live outside the circle of what is typified as normal? If so, I welcome you. There is plenty of room in the family of God for you. Please do not go away! We need you so much to bring color into our world. We need you to remind us that God creates outside the circle. We see God in you. Let Him shine through your uniqueness, and do not change!

I will tell you of one of God’s favorites who lived outside the circle, an odd man. It was a time in Israel when the people needed a deliverer. The odd one, David, was overlooked as a potential candidate and directed to remain in the fields. The odd one was not to speak, though it was he for whom the prophet was looking. The odd one believed God, in Whom he had found favor. The odd one slew the giant, and yet later when he found his enemy in a cave, he refused to slay him but instead cut a piece of cloth from his enemy's garment. This odd man actually danced in the streets; his wife despised him the rest of his life for it. God sums up this “just too odd” man, David, by saying, “I HAVE FOUND DAVID, the son of Jesse, A MAN AFTER MY HEART, who will do all My will.” There are so many odd people in the Bible, and I love to read about these people who lived outside man's circle but always within the circle of God's love and acceptance. The important thing is not whether or not you are odd, but that you allow the creative God to be Lord of your uniqueness. I thank God today for all of the odd people I have known who “do all His will.” 

- Mike Wells