by Anita Mondragon
I found myself a little more than annoyed this morning when I was awakened by these words: “You can’t fit a square peg into a round hole…” This phrase played over and over in my mind like a stuck record.
I was in a sweet slumber, reveling in the warmth of my fuzzy blanket, when those words shattered my peace! Finally I said out loud, “What are you talkin’ about Lord?”
Some of you may ask how I knew it was the Lord. Well, that’s the way He talks to me. My mind always has a million tasks I need to finish…a long list of things going through it at any given time, so God has to sound like a broken record before I hear Him.
That being said, the next words I heard were, “Get up and start writing.”
Here’s the thing about that phrase regarding the square peg and the round hole…my dad used to tell me that all the time. He likened it to our Christian walk with the Lord. He’d say “We are IN this world, but we are NOT to be OF this world. We are to different, peculiar; we are to stand out and show the lost a new path…the ONLY path to Heaven.”
In this world today, individuality is pretty much a thing of the past. We want to fit in. We feel the need to dress like everyone else, have the same make-up, talk the same, etc. Even us who profess to know Jesus as our Savior think we must listen to/tell dirty jokes with our co-workers, let a few cuss words slip, have an occasional drink, or inhabit certain venues to be popular. I’ve even heard ‘believers’ say, “Jesus ate with the sinners…” He did. But here’s the deal…Jesus sought them out so he could save them! He didn’t go to the places where they were so that he could fit in. He was there for a specific reason, and had a purpose in mind, and that was to rescue their souls from Hell.
We had several folks in our church that loved to dance, smoke and drink. They’d tell my dad, “We can be a testimony in the bar…” My dad challenged them. He said, “The next time you go the the bar, and you’re out on the dance floor, look at your partner and tell them you’re there to talk to them about Jesus. Or the next time you want to go on church visitation, walk up to the door with a cigarette in your mouth, and when they open the door blow a puff of smoke in their face and tell them you came to talk to them about Jesus. Let’s see if they’ll listen to you.”
You see, in order for someone to listen to us and want to change they must see a difference in us. They must realize that we practice what we preach. We have to show them the peace we have in Jesus!
If you really KNOW Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you won’t be able to fit in and be comfortable in the situation, Remember Peter? He tried to fit in after they took Jesus to be crucified. He sat around the fire with all the unbelievers, haters of God. He even cursed and declared that he did not know Jesus. He did it three times, and then the rooster crowed and reminded him of his true beliefs.
We’re not supposed to fit in…we are to stand out..,be different…LOOK LIKE JESUS! Stop trying to be something you aren’t anymore!
BE DIFFERENT! BE THE LIGHT! SHOW OTHERS THE WAY TO JESUS!