Not Like Everybody Else
By Jessica Brodie
Have you ever found yourself wanting to be just like everybody else? That was me for most of my life.
As a shy, bookish kid who moved a number of times throughout childhood, I had a hard time fitting in. I wasn’t confident or fun enough for the popular crowd, and I cared too much about fashion and lip gloss to find my tribe among the academics. The drug scene was definitely not for me, and sports? I was laughably, most definitely not an athlete.
I remember begging my mom to buy me this particular pair of jeans because I was convinced it would gain me access to a certain friend group (it didn’t). I had people-pleasing down to an art form, only it never worked because people peered through the façade and saw me for the insecure poseur I was.
It took me far too long into my adult years to figure out all this social orchestration and misfit angst was nonsense, and as a child of God, I only needed to worry about pleasing God. That’s where I sit today, finally liberated from my shackles of worry, self-doubt and pain.
I’ve realized I don’t need to fit in, because I’m not supposed to—I’m a Christian. And being a Christian means I follow Christ, not the world. I follow Christ, not the trends or my friend group or whoever has the loudest roar. I don’t need to be “normal,” regular, or even socially acceptable. I’m Jessica, daughter of the Risen King, and I simply need to be the best and most godly version of me so I can glorify Jesus in all I think, do, and say.
Everything else is fluff.
But this gets drowns out in life a lot, doesn’t it? There we are, scrolling through Instagram checking out our friends’ family vacation or gorgeous new home, and that tiny tickle of longing sets in. Why can’t we live in a place like that? Why doesn’t my family and I do those things? Why don’t I get to drive that car, wear those shoes, experience those adventures?
Or maybe I spend more time listening to the voice of culture telling me what to think, feel, or buy instead of the voice of God.
I think the ancient Israelites understood this well. After their exodus in the wilderness, they’d finally entered the Promised Land, and life was good—until it wasn’t. Squabbles and infighting began. God as supreme ruler, leader of their lives, began to take the backburner. Jobs and relationships and general life struggles clamored for attention, and they began to look around at other nations. “Why don’t we have a king like they do? Surely we’d be better organized, have more wealth and prosperity, more peace.”
So they went to their spiritual leader, the prophet Samuel, and begged him to ask God to send them a king, like “all the other nations have” (1 Samuel 8:5 NIV).
They forgot what God had promised them, all the way back to their forefather, Abraham—that God would set them apart, and make them His special people. God would establish a covenant with them, and they would be different, chosen, precious to God, nothing like the other nations that simply did what they wanted.
In essence, they were rejecting Him, God, so they could be just like everybody else—like all the other nations.
God gave them what they wanted, and just as He predicted, it did not go well. Oppression, tyranny, greed, pride—those things became their new reality.
See, the Israelites forgot they were supposed to be different, supposed to stand out, just like we sometimes forget we, too, are intended to be different. We’re not meant to be like our culture, not meant to love “the world.” We’re meant to follow Jesus, to turn the other cheek, to feed the poor and clothe the naked and visit the prisoner, not sit back and gorge ourselves on candy while we enjoy the riches of life.
In 1 John 2:15, the apostle John warns us, “Do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the Father is not in them.” He doesn’t mean don’t love creation, animals, your family, or people in general—John means don’t love culture and its lies and illusions. Instead, cling to God and know you aren’t meant to be captives of culture.
You are set free. You are different, special. You belong to God.
If you are in a place where you find yourself constantly longing for what others seem to have, for the so-called American Dream or what Hallmark movies or social media convince you is reality for everyone else, stop. Take a breath, and look up.
Remember that you are God’s, not the world’s. You are different, and different is good.
