The struggle to fit into the community we were born into and carve out our lives is sometimes overwhelmingly intense.  An infant, toddler, and young child must navigate and try to understand the circumstances, people, and relationships within and with his environment.  The older he gets, the more people have influence and impact on his life.  By the time he becomes a teenager, the battle is in full swing.

Any child from a Christian home will immediately know there are contradictions with what he hears at home and what is being served up to him outside.  The need to fit in and thereby gain acceptance and approval is characteristic of the stormy sea of social media and an evil agenda of denigration and false values that teenagers are daily navigating in their inner struggle.

The answer of the zeitgeist to the question of acceptance and approval is to be yourself; to determine your own truth.  It is a vague principle formed from the assumption that there are substantial values in every human being. Discovering it is the answer that will save you from a life of pretense and falsehood only to fit in and gain the approval of a group around you who are grappling with the same issue.  This can only lead to confusion and brokenness.  This deep seat of right and wrong created by God in every human being, is being ridiculed with the pressure of so-called freedom to discover oneself and follow one’s heart.

The ability to distinguish between good and evil is as old as the story of the Garden of Eden.  That is precisely what the serpent presented to Eve.  You are God yourself; You can control the knowledge of good and evil yourself; only you know best.  We all know where it ended — in judgment and a curse.

Just take a look in our precious ancient Scripture to see the wisdom of the ages on this subject.  This is not a modern issue.

How can a young person stay on the path of purity?
    By living according to your word. (Psalm 119:9, NIV)

Of course, we know the Scriptures very well.  This is precisely one that may be lost with over-familiarity.  This is the solution, firm and secure, to the question of acceptance that has reverberated over the centuries.

Truth is an elusive and mysterious concept.  Philosophers over centuries have agreed that truth is measured.  There is a standard that stands beyond all doubt that determines truth.  This is not something that unbelievers can ever understand.  Just think of Pilate’s question to Jesus, a question that actually fills one with sadness – a desperate grasp at the substance he experienced in the presence of Jesus.

In the history of mankind, there have been many people who posed as gods.  In Jewish history, false Messiahs are the order of the day.  This is why every word and action of Jesus fulfills every possible expectation and prophecy of what the Messiah has been spoken to.  In all the pretense and falsehood of self-proclaimed gods, there has never even been one who has said or repeated the words of Jesus.

Jesus said to him: “I am the way and the truth and the life; no one comes to the Father except through Me.  (John 14:6)

We have a standard.  We can measure absolutely everything by the life and deeds of Jesus.  It is written on the bracelet that was once fashionable and has now faded again: What would Jesus do – wwjd. It is the test of all times and all circumstances.

But – that is precisely what makes every follower of Jesus different.  It is the strange thinking that makes us live against the tide, counterintuitive, different, submissive, humble, teachable, and aware of a greater Truth that overshadows everything you see and know and certainly not popular.  It is not accidental, blind, random, or as the Dutch say: on the wild way .  It is certain, written in blood, valid in all circumstances, and applicable to all aspects of one’s life on earth.  It is Jesus and Jesus crucified – the shadow of the old, rugged cross over the whole earth.

That’s why we’re quirky and unusual – rightly so.

But you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.  (1 Peter 2:9)

The “key” to understanding these words lies in the word but, which implies the statement made on the contrary, against the ordinary, accepted, social trend of what is considered a good life.  It’s not the comfortable leaning back on a dinghy being dragged downstream. It’s a decision, a conscious reversal to swim against the tide of screaming and ranting social voices.  

Why would we choose such a path?  The consequences are indescribable.  It is the choice that directs your life on the golden path of testimony, truth that you can trust, certainty and the most luxurious life on earth, fearless and purposeful.

The verses before 1 Peter 2:9 are the foundation of our choice that baptizes us in quirkiness and strangeness.

As you come to him, the living Stone—rejected by humans but chosen by God and precious to him— ⁵ you also, like living stones, are being built into a spiritual house to be a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. ⁶ For in Scripture it says:

“See, I lay a stone in Zion,
    a chosen and precious cornerstone,
and the one who trusts in him
    will never be put to shame.” 

⁷ Now to you who believe, this stone is precious. But to those who do not believe,

“The stone the builders rejected
    has become the cornerstone,” 

⁸ and,

“A stone that causes people to stumble
    and a rock that makes them fall.”  (1 Peter 2:4-8, my emphasis)

We are different.  We were bought and set apart for a specific purpose.  That is precisely why we can call ourselves holy – not perfect, just very special.

The word we describe as God’s special possession is also translated as “peculiar people”which better expresses the strangeness of our path.  We belong; we are a possession of God and therefore the Creator God has a personal interest in everyone who makes the decision to follow Jesus.

That is reason enough to stand up and spin in joy and praise.  That’s what God does over you. (Zephaniah 3:17)

Let the stones cry out: Jesus lives and He lives in you.