Growing up, I was definitely a weird kid. When I was 10 years old, I collected hotel key cards. I would lock my door like it was a hotel room and use the hotel key card to slide it through the door cracks and unlock my room. Weird.
When I was seven years old, I told my mom that I wanted a baby. I tried to convince her that I could take care of the baby. I would feed it and wash it daily. I thought babies came from the grocery store. I thought there was some glass room with newborns and parents look through the glass and pointed out their baby. Of course, my mom told me no. I cried for days. Weird.
When I was in third grade, my dad was the Pastor of Worship at a well-known church in Dallas. I absolutely loved to write. I wrote short stories and poems all the time. One day he found a song that I wrote. In awe of the lyrics, he questioned me about writing it. “Yeah daddy, I wrote that.” He made the musical arrangements for this song and brought it to the praise team to teach for Sunday service. Some members of the team recognized the song and sang the original version for my daddy. Slightly humiliated, my dad circles back to me with the same question. “Aaqila, did you write this?” “Well, yes daddy, I did write that. I mean, that is my handwriting, not my song.” Weird.
I had this one joke that tickled me. Ok, here it goes…Why do we say good morning, goodbye, good evening but not good hello? Yeah, there was no pun. There was no knee slapper but I died laughing. Weird.
I did some weird things growing up and many more things that my family will not let me forget. But you know who else was weird? Jesus. That dude was super weird. His whole birth story is weird. His squad was made up of a tax collector, fishermen and tradesmen. Weird.
He went without food for 40 days. Weird.
Hung out with sinners. Weird.
Healed a leper by touching him. Weird.
Spitting on blind people. Weird.
Jesus did so many things that the world considered weird. He was castigated and hated for His actions. However, He never allowed this to deter Him from being obedient to God the Father. Christians, we have to take notes on this behavior. Do I need to say it again for the people in the back? Our faith requires us to do some things that others deem weird, but we have to make the choice to remain obedient to God.
Don’t be drunk with wine. Weird.
Wait til marriage for sex. Weird.
Submit your desires to the Lord. Weird.
Share what you have with the poor. Weird.
The list goes on…
But this is what God requires. Our obedience to God has to be priority. We have to block out what others are saying and listen to the only voice that matters.
John 17: 14-16 says, “I have given them your word and the world has hated them, for they are not of the world any more than I am of the world. My prayer is not that you take them out of the world but that you protect them from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am not of it.”
We are here in this world, in this flesh, but be encouraged because this is not our home. This is not the end. We have hope that we can overcome because Christ did. We will stand out. We will be laughed at. We will be cursed at. We will be misunderstood. We will be rejected. We will be ridiculed. We will be weird.
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