The Good and Beautiful Community
From James Bryan Smith:
I love the word peculiar. Dictionaries define it as “distinctive,” “odd,” “strange” and “weird.” In a word peculiar means different. Different from the ordinary, the common, from everyone else. Christians are peculiar in that they are different from everyone else.
But are apprentices of Jesus really so different? I believe we are, or at least we ought to be. For example, if I (by the power of the Spirit) begin telling the truth in my life, I will become an oddity. If I can learn to slow down, live without being ruled by anger and actually pray for people who try to cut me down, I will be considered weird, because this world does not work this way. Only people who are steeped in the kingdom of God can begin living this way. There are far too few.