Different isn't always bad

I slowly and awkwardly maneuvered my way through the hallway, trying to get to my next class before the bell rang.  I kept my head down and tried not to make eye contact with anyone.  Even so, it was evident who the kids were laughing at and pointing to.  Finally, one sympathetic student came up to me and quickly reached behind my back and removed a piece of paper.  The paper said, “kick me.”  Tears started streaming down my face.

Twenty years later and I still remember it as clear as it was yesterday.  I had always been “different.”  I was visibly weak from the muscular dystrophy at an early age.  Walking was often painful.  And thanks to the cruelty of many of the kids, walking from one class to another was not only physically painful, it was often emotionally painful as well.  If only a single day could go by where they might forget about me…but no…it was my constant companion…the laughter…the ridicule…from the first day of kindergarten until the day I graduated from high school. 

Even today, in social situations, I still feel the sting of the pain from those 13 years.  Social situations are very difficult for me and I often feel anxiety when I am in them.  Last night I confided to a friend about how hard it is for me to be in social situations because I feel like I always stick out like a sore thumb.  She said that she too struggles with being different.

But today, as I reflect on the Lord and his promises for my life, I am reminded of another person in scripture who was also labeled “different.”  

In Numbers 14, the Lord had promised Israel that they would inherit the land of Canaan.  However, the Israelites were too scared to go in and possess the land.  But there was one who was “different’ from the rest.  “But My servant Caleb, because he has a different spirit in him and has followed Me fully, I will bring into the land where he went, and his descendants shall inherit it (Numbers 14:24).  So in this situation, Caleb was given honor and praise from the Lord because he was different.  How hard it must have been for him to stand up for what was right even though he was different from all the rest.  Different does not always mean bad.  In this situation, different was really good!

The enemy spends many years getting to know us.  He devises a plan in order to make us believe lies about ourselves.  He wants us to believe that being different is bad.  He wants us to believe that when we are treated differently or when we are different because we are standing up for what is right that we are bad and not worthy of God’s love and acceptance.  He wants us to believe the lies that others say about us.  But God’s word says differently.

We were knit together in our mother’s womb.  We were fearfully and wonderfully made (Psalm 139)

We must learn to fight the enemy with truths from His word.  Even Jesus fought Satan with scripture during the time He was being tempted.  God wants us to experience victory while here on this earth.

So the next time that you start to believe a lie from the enemy, remember to refute it with scripture.  And keep in mind…that different does not have to be bad…as a matter of fact different can be very good.  After all, we are told not to “conform” to the world but instead be “transformed.”

By: Hannah Guajardo