(un)remarkable

I was thinking a lot the other day after reading something in a book by John Eldredge.  He made a comment about a very famous verse found in 1 Peter 3:15.  I know you have read/heard this verse a lot.  I included verse 16 with it as well.

Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect, ¹⁶keeping a clear conscience, so that those who speak maliciously against your good behavior in Christ may be ashamed of their slander.

Sounds good doesn’t it?  “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.”  Let me ask you a really honest question.  Has anyone ever asked you?  Because they haven’t asked me.  Why is that?  Are they just shy?  Ashamed?  Clueless?  Or apathetic?  Those would be easier answers than what I suspect is the actual reason they don’t ask.  I am afraid that they don’t ask because my life doesn’t look remarkably different than any of their other friends’ lives.  In other words, I don’t stand out.  We only ask about things that stand out.  Things that catch our attention.  When something blends in with everything else around it, we don’t even notice it.  In essence, too many Christians, myself included, are simply unremarkable.

Now, this doesn’t mean you have to get weird around your friends.  When they ask you where you want to eat lunch, you don’t have to say, “Let’s pray about it”.  You don’t have to start working “thee” and “thou” into your everyday speech.  You don’t have to slap a fish on the back of your car and an Annotated Study Bible in your back window that would be entirely sufficient to completely decapitate you in the event of a crash.  This is not a call to be weird.  As a matter of fact, if you are that guy, I am going to respectfully ask you to quit weirding people out in the name of Jesus!

It is not a call to be weird, but it is a call to be different!

I guess what I am saying, is what would happen if we started taking risks in our lives?  What if we quit being comfortable like everyone else?  What if we took some risks for God?  And, the biggest risk we might be able to take is living a life that looks different from everyone else.  Because one thing I have learned in my old(er) age is that no one else has it any more “together” than I do.  Studies show that around 80% of households are living paycheck to paycheck.  Which means if I don’t live that way, like maybe I have money saved in the bank, a written budget every month, and am out of debt, that makes me weird.  But, would anyone think that kind of weird is a bad thing?

How many truly happy marriages do you you know?  What if I lived my life in such a way that showed I valued marriage?  What if I spoke highly of my wife while standing around the water cooler instead of running her down like the other guys?  What if I took my wife out on dates a few times a month and we left the kids with a sitter so we could be “husband and wife” for the night instead of “mom and dad”?  How different would we look to the rest of the world?

What if I was just honest in a loving way?  What if people knew me as someone who would tell the truth instead of telling them what they wanted to hear?  Would I get more people talking to me or less?

This has turned into a big “what if” post.  I didn’t really intend it that way, but as I wrote, I felt like I was dreaming.  And dreams are a big “what if”.

All I know is this.  The Bible tells me to always be prepared to give an answer to those who ask about my life.  And no one asks.  I am not naive enough or self-centered enough to think the problem is with them.  I believe the problem is with me.  I need to do a better job of living my life in such a way that people ask.  Because when they ask, I will be able to tell them about the One who is making me into the one who stands out; who looks different than everyone else;  who isn’t afraid to be different.

I want to be that guy.  Not for me, but for Him!

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