Am I Peculiar?

I remember a Sunday morning service during my childhood like it was yesterday. A missionary family was visiting our church, and they were standing in front of the congregation. They looked peculiar. For some reason, I remember watching this family, and feeling sorry for their peculiarity. Strange memory to hold for all these years, isn't it?

Perhaps this memory symbolizes something within me that I have attempted to avoid throughout my life. I love up-to-date clothing, home decor, activities, books, technology, thinking.... I don't want to be considered peculiar! Kelly Minter (2007) has challenged me to reconsider peculiarity and identity. Since I am interested in identity formation - this is reflected in my academic and professional pursuits, as well as my introspective nature - this challenge peaks my attention. Minter writes:

Who wants to be a peculiar person? Somehow it was always the extremely out-of-touch individual who was elevated to a super-holy states.... Weird somehow meant holy (p. 36).

Then in 1 Peter 2:9-12:

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people, but now you are the people of God; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.

Dear friends, I urge you, as aliens and strangers in the world, to abstain from sinful desires, which war against your soul. Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.

Based on these verses, Minter (2007) invites us to view peculiarity as goodness - as in a fruit of the Spirit. "The extreme goodness of our lives is the peculiar part. Goodness should be setting us apart in distinctive ways" (p. 38). She goes on to provide another quite profound point:

Fulfilling our sinful desires (that which is the opposite of goodness produced by Godly obedience) will snuff out this burning goodness. By indulging them we actually become the reverse of peculiar and strange. We become -- hold your breathe -- normal. For those of us seeking individualism and distinctiveness, chasing our lusts will only make us like everyone else, with little identity at all (p. 39).

I easily identified three sinful desires that keep me from displaying my identity in Christ: Materialism, recognition, and perfectionism. I don't want to be "normal" with no distinctive identity in Christ. I want to embrace every opportunity possible to know Him and be like Him for the purpose of giving God fame in this world. The three aforementioned desires are me-centered, and they are each very normal in our culture. I am not satisfied with this kind of normalcy....

In the end, I am finding that peculiarity really is my goal!

Minter, K. (2007). No other gods: Confronting our modern-day idols. Nashville: Lifeway.

P.S. If you have a teen girl that needs some inspiration in Godly peculiarity, I highly recommend Robin Jones Gunn's Christy Miller Series and Katie Weldon Series. Christy and Katie call themselves "peculiar treasures" while pursuing Godly relationships throughout adolescence and young adulthood.