It’s a strange phenomenon that we humans experience almost from birth. It’s the pressure to fit in. There is a real pressure to be like everyone else, to conform to societal norms—to be “normal.” That has never sat well with me, and I’m guessing if you’re still reading, it may not sit well with you either. So let’s dig into it.
What Is Normal?
This is the core question of the debate. Normal by what standard? Normal by whose standard? Our moms were likely the first people in our lives to call this out, when they asked the age old question, “If everyone else jumped off a bridge would you?” And unfortunately, if you could hear our thoughts, most of us were getting that question wrong. The pressure to fit in is extreme. But then the question becomes, with whom will we fit in?
You’re So Punk!
I remember being a teen in the early days of the punk rock movement. All of the sudden you were seeing people everywhere wearing anarchy symbols and Mohawks and safety pins and lots and lots of black pleather. Everyone was into nonconformity, which was creating a new issue, which was best summed up in the song lyric I wrote for the band I was in for about a week and a half. I called it You’re So Punk. I only remember one line from it today, but that line is telling: “Be a nonconformist just like everybody else.” Simply put, abnormal was becoming normal.
Who Determines What’s Normal?
In 1983, the band Rush, called this phenomena out in their anthem against the pressure to conform, Subdivisions, which called out the warning, “Conform or be cast out.” That song was like liberation for me. I started to realize the problem wasn’t that I couldn’t conform, but that I didn’t want to. I didn’t like a lot of what I was seeing all on around me. I didn’t know the half of it.
The Only Thing That’s Wrong…
In the course of my life, I have seen a societal shift to the point where today it seems like the only thing that is still wrong is saying something is wrong. To me that’s problematic. Once I met Jesus, I began to see that following Him was the right way, and that even if it wasn’t popular, it was the best way to go and the best way to be. It’s not that I hate people who think differently. It’s that I have found a path that leads to so many blessings, that the only loving thing I can do is share it. To withhold it, for me, would be the equivalent of having the key to solving all the world’s problems and keeping it to myself. If that makes me abnormal, I don’t want to be normal.
Peculiar
In the King James version of the Bible we see the calling for the church. 1 Peter 2:9 says But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvelous light; It calls us “a peculiar people.” Peculiar is the antithesis of normal. It means “weird.” This doesn’t mean we are weird for the sake of being weird. It means in a world going the wrong direction we stand out, We go against the grain. In a world that believes all its own lies, we speak the truth in love. And what will be the result of that peculiarity. We will bring praise to the God who called us out of the darkness. Isn’t that what we should want?
The Essence of Creativity
Take this into the realm of the arts. When you look at a work of art, why does it stand out? Because it’s like everything else around it? No! What stands out is work that is excellent, praiseworthy, different, innovative, creative. It stands out because it’s not the normal. It exceeds the normal. It goes above and beyond. it’s unexpected. It makes a difference. The key to being excellent in art, is to be beyond the normal. I think that’s also the key to an excellent life.
A Beyond Normal Life
The Bible says it this way, in 1 Peter 2:12: “Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us.” In other words, live a life that is so good, by God’s standard, that even the people who want to accuse you of doing wrong, will have to come to the conclusion that God is at work in your life for the better. It’s an uncompromising life that decidedly does not fit in wit the ways of the world. It can’t fit in. It’s too busy standing out, and it stands out for all the right reasons.
Why Be Normal?
Romans 12:2 says, “Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.” You won’t be able to live in God’s will by following the pattern of this world. Those two things are diametrically opposed. You literally can’t do both, so you have to choose. In order to stop conforming to this world’s pattern, you have to let God and His Word, change the way you think. This will make you abnormal in the eyes of the world, but that’s okay. You can’t stand out by being like everyone else, so why be normal? Let God make you something more. Give up on fitting in with a messed up world. You weren’t made to fit into that.
You were made to change it!
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