On The Outside.

I am fully convinced that God wants us to be different.

Hear me out.

I could talk about all the ways we, as believers of Christ, are the outgroup of the world. But let’s talk about even within our in-group.

As a believer, your purpose, and calling is specifically unique to you. God crafted you, knowing from the beginning that you are His masterpiece, making no mistakes. Yet, we try to go against the grain. Trying to master how eloquently someone else speaks, how beautifully someone sings, or how gracefully someone serves.

But what has God called YOU to do? That only YOU can do!

As I have been seeking God out on my purpose and what I am supposed to be doing in the season I am in, I’ve heard one word:

WAIT.

Now this word is no run-of-the-mill kind of word. This word carries weight. It reminds you that patience is part of the process. It tests your self-control.

It shows you how fully submitted you are to God’s will for your life.

And if you’re anything like me, you just have to know, “God, what are you about to do now?”

My therapist said it best, when you look at the development of children, when they are young and especially hungry, their wait time is low. Babies need food immediately, not capable of waiting until we turn a corner, or finish washing a dish. But a teenager has the ability to wait until the next stop on a long ride, or wait until they’re home to get food. As we grow older, our patience increases, but how often are we willing to submit to that?

For me, I found myself in a place when I first started walking with God of always wanting to know, “God, where are you? What am I supposed to do next?”. And God, being the best Father ever, always guided my hand, feet, and mind to what needed to be done. I was a baby or babe in Christ. However, I am noticing as I mature, that things are not always like this anymore. His answers may not always be immediate. His direction may not always start at the beginning of the day with “BOOM, here daughter, this is the itinerary.” Yet, He still wants that same level of trust and faith that I had as a babe to continue as I grow. The problem is:

I’m the one who was struggling to see the growth He was creating in me.

Ephesians 4:14 NKJV says:

¹⁴ that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting,

When we first begin our walk, it’s easy to get caught up in what is or isn’t. We listen to everything, eating up the word in ways we did not know that we could, but not always understanding. We could not see what God sees all the time, because we were building a relationship with Him, learning to hear Him, and coming in to loving Him. So like children, we are open, vulnerable, and sometimes naïve to what we may hear.

However, we do not stay here. We grow, we push, we persist in learning God. Developing our ear, asking for wisdom, knowledge and understanding to where now, we can walk into Ephesians 3:15 NKJV:

15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head—Christ— 

The point that I am trying to make: in your growing season of your life with Christ, wherever that may be, don’t afraid to be different.

Even in our growth, Paul literally highlights next (Ephesians 3:16):

¹⁶ from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

Meaning, we all have a purpose in the body, but yours may look different from your brother’s or sister’s. It does not make you less effective; it does not make you an outsider to the body of Christ. No, it makes you, a servant of God who, through your difference/uniqueness, is being purposed to work conjointly in God and with others. This is true unity.

Don’t allow what others are doing, saying, and even creating affect the purpose that God is giving you. If He made a path for them, He has already made a path for you. Believe and trust the process as you grow from babe to adult in Christ understanding that God is working in you. God will not leave you. God has already called and chosen you for what you are doing.

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