Stepping out from the crowd

By Robert Hurtgen

Each New Year many of us determine to make changes in our lives by making resolutions. Researchers have observed that around 40 percent of Americans set New Year's resolutions. And studies continually show, year and year, only a small percentage of people keep their resolutions. Making resolutions does not seem to bring the change we want. What we need, then, are not more resolutions, but a revolution from resolutions.

In the Bible, Jesus speaking to a crowd, calls all who hear him not to just stop doing something, but to start something else. Mark 8:34 reads, "Calling the crowd along with his disciples, he [Jesus] said to them, 'If anyone wants to follow after me, let him deny himself, take up his cross, and follow me.'"

Living a life you didn't even know you wanted demands being different than everyone else in the crowd.

Jesus recognized not everyone in the crowd was going to embrace the radical invitation he presented. Some will, most will not. Few will separate themselves from the crowd to pursue the life they didn't know they wanted.

At every major sporting event there are cameras everywhere. Yet, not all the cameras are fixed on the game taking place on the field. Many of the camera operators are searching the crowd, looking for those people who are different than everybody else. They are looking for those shirtless men who are showing off their painted "dad-bods," even if the temperature is well below freezing. They are looking for the sleeping baby, oblivious to what is happening all around. The cameras are panning the crowd for someone who is set apart from the rest.

A trait of living a life you never knew you wanted is to recognize your life has to be slightly different than the crowd around you. In a similar way to those who distinguish themselves at a sporting event, Jesus is calling all who will listen to distinguish themselves from the world around them. Change that lasts is choosing what Jesus offers, not just rejecting what you no longer want.

To live a life you never knew you wanted, be prepared to be slightly different than those around you.