Celebrate Your Weirdness: You are wonderful, no matter what you think

I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. Ps 139:14

By Carol McClain: @carol_mcclain

Great people  have what had been considered oddities.
President Obama was left-handed.

My brother Art is left-handed. Back when we were in grade school, left-handedness was considered a trait to be corrected. So many lefties were forced to convert to right-handed writing.

When that failed, they still faced tribulation.

My granddaughter, too, uses her left hand. Spirals in notebooks get in the way. Ink smudges over her hand--even when using a ball point pen. Scissors? Not designed for her.

So sad that we couldn't celebrate our diversity then, but we know now, lefties are a creative crew--right-brained, different-thinking. They have solutions no one else does. Gifts God created especially for them.

English: Illustration to The Holy Bile, Judges, chapter 3. Eglon assassinated by Ehud. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

It reminds of Ehud, a hero from the Book of Judges. As a left-handed warrior, he had to design a special two-edged sword because standard ones wouldn't work for him. Unlike other fighters, he hid the shortened blade on his right side, not his left. When he approached the evil king, Eglon, the monarch kept his eye on Ehud's left side--where a sword should have been.

Because he had to design a special sword, because it was on the opposite hip that everyone else used, Ehud was able to assassinate the fat, wicked Moabite ruler.

Think of your own uniqueness--you're not weird. 

1. Do you suffer from mental illness? God can use your focus and pain. For those with Asperger's or OCD, you have concentration that could make Bill Gates envious. Perhaps the mental stress of other issues disturb you. You can understand the pain other people face. You can nurture them. Mental illness is the same as chronic physical illness. You're not weird.
2. Do you see odd shapes in trees and rocks when others see trees and rocks? I hike regularly. Pat is always pointing out boring rocks to me. "Look, a duck!" or "There's a rabbit holding a rifle." I'd look, and, sure enough, in the erosion of the stone, a duck face or gun-toting bunny would have formed. This imaginative mind makes a fanciful world out of the mundane.
3. Does a physical illness plague you? A woman in our church must go on dialysis three times a week. Those long, tedious days are not spent glued to a TV. She spends hours in prayer.
4. Are you single in a married world? God can use the time to build your creativity, your ministry to others or develop your talents. You can work to your full potential in ways married people can't.

If we're honest, all of us are weird.

The strength comes in acknowledging it and calling it for what it is: we are fearfully, wonderfully and uniquely made.

Each of us has our own strengths.

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