Being Different

Day three hundred nineteen

I am grateful for the love I have for my husband.  We have been married for over twenty years and I still can't sleep when he is called away in the middle of the night.  I lay there worrying about him and praying that the Lord will be with him, keep him safe, and bring him home to me.  I know that I am very fortunate to have married my best friend and I thank God for that fact every day.  I pray that in twenty more years I will feel the same!

Ezra 10:11

At this point in Jewish history Ezra is in Jerusalem working on getting the people to recognize their sins, instructing them to get their affairs in order, and asking them to covenant with the Lord to do better.  Verse 11 in chapter 10 sums it up nicely:

"Now therefore make confession unto the Lord God of you fathers, and do his pleasure: and separate yourselves from the people of the land, and from the strange wives"

As I read this verse it sounded so familiar:  Repent, be obedient, be different from the world, and choose your spouse wisely.  We are given the same message today!  I believe you could go back through the General Conference talks for years and find this same invitation given each time.  The fact that this same message has been given for thousands of years says a lot about our learning curve as a people.  We keep making the same mistakes over and over again.  Why is that?  I think it's because these are hard things to do.  It is not easy to be a follower of Christ in our day nor was it easy in Ezra's day. It requires sacrifice to be a disciple of Christ and it means being different from the world we live in.

Being different, that's hard, at least for me.  Christ even warned us that it would be hard:

"And ye shall be hated of all men for my name's sake: but he that endureth to the end shall be saved." (Matt 10:22)

Who goes through life hoping to be hated by all men? I want to be loved, maybe even adored, but not hated!  Why would anybody hate us anyways?  We are just trying to be good people! 

We live in a strange world.  Everybody is looking for some way to stand out, to be different, yet somehow be the same.  We want to be just different enough that we are "cool", but not so different that people turn away from us.  And as Christians it is hard to find the line where you can be different and still not compromise your beliefs, because if we do compromise, the world will be sure to point it out to us.

"To be nobody but yourself in a world doing its best to make you everybody else means to fight the hardest battle any human can ever fight and never stop fighting.”
- e. e. cummings

I love that quote.  It often does feel like the world is pressuring us to be what it wants, not what we need to be.  Which brings up the question, why do we need to be different anyways?

"And be not conformed to this world: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God." (Rom 12:2)

It's all about showing the world the goodness of God. In a world focused on "self", we are to be different, less concerned with our wants and desires and more concerned about God's will.  This is hard.  God isn't really into the material things that we love so much.  He is more concerned with the salvation of every person, "For behold, this is my work and my glory—to bring to pass the immortality and eternal life of man" (Moses 1:39).  That's a big job and when we become Christians we are saying, "I will be different.  I will help you with that!"

The great thing about this is that God always gives us what we need so that we can do what He has asked us to do.  One tool He has given us is the gospel:

Scriptures
"For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth;" (Rom 1:16)

To be different means to be familiar with the word of God.  While others in the world dedicate time to TV, video games, etc, we are to dedicate time to study the scriptures.  It doesn't mean we can't watch TV and play games, it does mean that we put learning about the Lord first, and then we go from there. 

Others
Here's something to think about, you don't have to be different alone.  We can be different together, in fact, the Lord encourages it:

"Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching." (Heb 10:25)

We are supposed to meet together to encourage each other.  It makes me feel better to know that we can be different and still be in a group.  I know that in the world there have been times when I have felt totally alone because I was different.  It is nice to know that as Christians we are supposed to help each other be different.  We have a support system.

Understanding
"And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not." (John 1:5)

This is a great verse.  It has helped me many times when I am frustrated with the fact that I am being 'different', but it doesn't seem to have any effect on those around me.  This is for those days when you want to stop being different and just fit in because it takes so much effort to be different.  I have asked myself many times, who would care if I wasn't different?  Would it really make a difference in the world?

It is easy to get discouraged when your efforts seem for naught.  But the Lord knew we would have these days and He gave us this wonderful verse to let us know that there will be times when we will be the light in someone's life and they will not accept it.  This is not new, it came with agency.  We all have a choice to make; we can be in the light or in the darkness.  Being different will be too hard for some people and they will choose the darkness.  There is comfort in knowing that He understands.

These are just a few thoughts on being different. We are under a great amount of pressure to conform to worldly standards and the Lord has given us many more tools to help us like, the Holy Ghost, prayer, prophets, etc.  Each one could be a post of its own. I chose to write about these three because this is where I am finding encouragement lately. 

Ezra asked the Jews to be different from the surrounding people because he knew that it would strengthen them.  They would have to evaluate themselves and make a commitment to renew their covenants.  The Lord is asking the same of us.  Are we willing to be different and deal with all that comes with it because we love the Lord?  Are we willing to never stop fighting? It is a hard path to take, but the benefits (immortlaity and eternal life) far outway the negatives.  So today embrace being different and bring a little light into the world.