Ever Growing Ever Changing

You know how we say God is an artist? I don’t know of any artist who creates the exact same work twice. Sure, they might do a series, but every piece of work is a unique masterpiece. Over four decades of life has taught me that it is the same with us, God’s creations. It took me a mighty long time to acknowledge and accept that.

You see, most of my life I have felt somewhat uncomfortable because I was different, not better, just different from the norm. As a Jamaican, while I do enjoy reggae music, my playlist also features quite a bit of alternative rock, Latin pop, and Brazilian bossa nova. In high school, while my peers were listening to rap, I opted for Puccini. To make things more complicated, I am a devout Christian with a high propensity for order and uncompromising living in a world that encourages compromise at every turn. And to top it off, I am mostly an introvert.

I always wondered why I couldn’t be like everyone else and “go with the flow”. Instead, I stuck out like a sore thumb. Thankfully, new environments and new friendships would eventually help me to appreciate my idiosyncrasies more, and time has helped me to be more patient with the differences in others.

What I came to realise is that our differences are not random accidents. If we pay attention to the people around us and the environment we inhabit, it becomes abundantly clear that we are all uniquely created for unique roles in this life.  We all, therefore, have our own unique mix of personalities, talents, strengths, and experiences that are equipping us for the specific role that God carved out for each of us. What sweet validation!

There is a tremendous freedom that comes with knowing and accepting who you were created to be. I am obviously not speaking of anti-social behaviours here and I do also think there is room to grow and modify any behaviours or personality traits that make us dysfunctional. Nonetheless, if we understand that we were not created to be like everyone else, what would that mean for how we live, the risks we take, and the dreams we pursue? How would it change our self-love?

Understanding our unique endowments allows us to follow our own paths confidently, according to our interests and talents, and at our own pace. We no longer feel the need to compare ourselves to others. In fact, we begin to understand that we truly should only be competing with former versions of ourselves on our road to personal growth and fulfilment.

In essence, it’s as if we are all individual pieces of a larger cosmic puzzle. You fit where you are meant to and together, we form a beautiful picture of humanity. When we try to fill the space meant for someone else, it leaves gaps and the picture remains incomplete.

What aspects of your uniqueness do you need to fully embrace today? Will you do it?