Today’s word prompt: Different

I don’t know when being different from others awakened in my consciousness, but certainly, a little before high school, I understood my way of acting and thinking did not conform to others’ actions or thoughts. It didn’t bother me much because I knew no other way to be. When I tried to act like others, I failed. I felt uncomfortable, almost like lying, not being true to my self.

Robert Frost’s poem, The Road Not Taken, resonated with me early in life (and with millions of others). It starts, “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood” and ends with “I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”

Why am I different? Photo by h.koppdelaney

Jesus took that road. I think He has too few of us who offer Him loyalty or friendship because He is different, too. He does and says what others find hard to take. He is unconventional. He seeks no accolades or power. He gives people choices to leave Him. He’s odd in a holy kind of way. He speaks of things we cannot see and indirectly in parables. He issues hard-to-understand edicts.

When we find someone different, prejudice often forms. What an excellent exercise to give ourselves: to find something in common with the different ones; to seek to understand how their heart speaks.

[Every week, a single word is proposed for a five-minute blog post by Kate Motaung here at Five Minute Friday]

Click here to read more about God’s Patience Pursuit of My Soul or here for another Five minute Friday blogposts.