Why being weird is actually normal...

Image by hoveringdog

Most people don't like to be singled out as being 'weird.' In grade school the last thing any of us wanted to be called is 'weird' and I would venture to say that for many that same philosophy has followed us as adults.

To a great degree as Christians we don't want others to see us as 'weird' so we try to fit in as best we can of course without breaking any biblical principles. Sometimes within my own denomination many are careful to not want to be categorized as one of those 'weird' people who dress with 'weird' clothes (really there just wearing clothes from a different era), who claim that unless you eat certain foods, dress in certain ways, listen to a certain style of music, and adhere to the letter of the law when it comes to certain books you're not a good Seventh-day Adventist Christian. Sure we may call them 'legalists' but many will call them 'weird.'

Perhaps though, because of some actual 'weird' people like the ones i just mentioned above, and others within Christianity, like the guy at a big city corner with a long beard saying the earth is going to end therefore repent! We as Christians have shunned being...well...'weird.'

We say we love Jesus, we go to church (really a building because we are the church), we live good moral lives, essential we are normal. Yet if we're honest with ourselves and if we're really reading the Bible we know that following Jesus in today's world, would make us 'weird.' But the question is to who?

I would say to those who really haven't surrendered all to Him. Let's really go deep here: Can a people who sit a pew once a week, read their bibles occasionally at best, and aren't involved in some kind of discipling work really call themselves followers of Jesus? That would be weird, because that's not what Jesus had in mind as one reads the bible.

Watch the video clip below (really do watch it!) of Francis Chan a well known evangelical preacher who spoke at the recent Catalyst Conference (an incredible conference of Christian leaders, I had to miss it this year) After starting and growing a church for 16 years in Simi Valley, California decided to leave the church he started and now is moving to Asia. Some have said he's weird...

Maybe reality is that God is calling us to be 'weird.' Weird that is to those that don't really know nor follow Jesus, normal to God and all those who have surrendered all to Him.


Catalyst East 2010: Francis Chan from Catalyst on Vimeo.

So are you afraid to be weird or more afraid to be normal in God's eye's and the weird adventure that would await you?

Javi