Fitting In or Standing Out?

Jesus always turns everything upside down when it comes to our way of thinking. The world tells us as Max Lucado puts it “follow us and fit in.” Jesus promises, “Follow me and stand out.” But standing out doesn’t mean that we are to be served, to expect the honor of the best seat, but to serve, maybe being the usher who leads someone to their seat.

“Follow us and fit in,” is a message that I hear, see and read about hundreds and hundreds of times each day. The only way I can avoid these is to go and live in a cave. Trying to “fit in” can lead to despair because we tend to compare ourselves to others. Fr. Martin points out how this “is a great trap in the spiritual life, when much in our culture tempts us to think that if only we were someone else – better looking, better educated, better moneyed – we would be happier. “

For many the world promises acceptance, we like to “fit in.”  Jesus promises a cross, saying, “Whoever follows me has the light of life.” Whoever follows Jesus will stand out because if we follow his example we will do unto others what he did for us.

A little woman, in physical stature only, stands out in my mind and that is Mother Teresa who said, ” We ourselves feel that what we are doing is just a drop in the ocean. But the ocean would be less because of that missing drop.”

John 15:5 says that “He is the vine, we the branches.” Blessed Titus Brandsma reminds us that, “He stretched himself out on the winepress and began to tread it. Thus he gave us the wine by which we might, by drinking, live his life and share his sufferings.”

Stop trying to fit in when you were born to stand out.

A few years back the army had a slogan - Be all that you can be.