"'Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is LIBERTY.' 2 Corinthians 3:17
All my life I never “Fit In.” Even as a baby, for whatever reason, I crawled backwards. The Doctor told my parents, “He is going to be an unusual child.” It seems that ever since then I’ve been on “The road less traveled.” While that may seem poetic, in real life it can cause a lot of tension, rejection and misunderstanding.
Finding the freedom to be who God has created and intends you to be can be quite disturbing to the herd mentality. Which is the tendency for one’s behaviour or beliefs to conform to those of the group or culture to which they belong. This becomes threatening to the group think mentality. If you don’t believe me, just try to think outside the box of your family, church, political affiliation, employment, society or the clique you want to hang with.
So are we really free to follow our heart as Jesus, His Word and Spirit leads us? Certainly that should be the case, “Therefore if Jesus makes you free, ye shall be free indeed.” John 8:36 Jesus lived out this principle and was the loneliest Man that ever walked on planet Earth. His family didn’t understand Him, His church rejected and crucified Him and His disciples tried to maneuver Him into their cultural expectations.
The Jewish church hated Jesus freedom and were fearful it would spread to all their religious captives, so they determined that it was, “Expedient for us, that one man should die… and that the whole nation perish not.” John 11:50 Patrick Henry put it this way, “Give me liberty or give me death.”
While we sing songs like, “Born free, as free as the wind blows, as free as the grass grows, born free to follow your heart.” In living that out, if you dare to, you will find that freedom is NOT free. It can cost you everything. I know, I’ve been trying to be who God has created me to be for the last 71 years and it’s not always romantic.
I love the song, “I‘ve Gotta Be Me.” Some of my favourite lyrics are, “I want to live, not merely survive. And I won’t give up this dream of life that keeps me alive. I gotta be me, I gotta be me. The dream that I see makes me what I am. I’ll go it alone, that’s how it must be. I can’t be right for somebody else, if I’m not right for me. I gotta be free, I’ve gotta be free. Daring to try, to do it or die, I’ve gotta be me.”
I have found that life isn’t worth living if all I am is a chameleon to other’s expectations. Perhaps the hardest step in my life has been to live outside of others parameters to be who "God has called me to be". I have found that when you dare to be who God has created you to be, you will run into rejection, disapproval, shunning, censor and even smear. Now you have another battle on your hands, which is the stigma of not belonging.
For me, I have chosen to rise above all this rejection and like Jesus, go it alone. Whether I am right in their eyes or not, in the end I still have to be free to be who God made me to be. There is a price to being who God has called you to be. However, there is also a cost to not being what God has called you to be.
You decide which price tag you’re going to pay. For me, I’ve chosen to find my real life in Jesus Christ!"
Jim Hohnberger - Empowered Living Ministries
