Tucson...

"Every heart has a rhythm. Let yours beat out so loudly that everyone can hear it. Yeah I promise you don't need to hide it anymore. And never be afraid of doing something different. Dare to do something more." -Hunter Hayes, Invisible

"Your need for acceptance can make you invisible in this world." -Jim Carrey

"Before I formed you in the womb I new you, and before you were born I consecrated you; I appointed you a prophet to the nations." Jeremiah 1:5

Last summer we took our seniors who had just graduated high school on a mystery trip. What's a mystery trip you ask? Well, it's a trip where the youth only find out where they are going as we are leaving. Pretty fun, huh?

Last summer we went to Santa Monica for a couple of days on the beach (and to a place called Magicopolis! If you're ever in the area, check that place out.) For two and a half days we soaked up some sun, chilled and had a great time. But like all good trips, eventually it was time to come back.

On the way back we had a short layover in Tuscon. As we descended into the city (and returned to civilization, for that matter) I looked out the window to see the beautiful mountains and a city I had never visited. And what I noticed was something odd: as I looked down, every house looked the exact same. I don't mean in the way that every house looks the same when you are thousands of feet above the ground traveling at hundreds of miles an hour. But as we got closer and closer to landing, the houses looked more similar by the second. There were just rows and rows of the same house, as if one architect had been contracted by the city to design every house and then got bored after he or she finished the first one.

(Now, let me just say, that if you live in Tucson, we had a great experience there. I loved your airport and the mountains were beautiful. Our plane got delayed and it was a blast spending that time in your terminal!)

But there was just something odd about it all. Every house in Tucson couldn't be the same could it? It was so... blah.

It reminded me of a book my parents read to me as a little boy: The Big Orange Splot by Daniel Pinkwater. The story begins, "Mr. Plumbean lived on a street where all the houses were the same." This was how the neighbors liked it. Everything looked alike and nothing was different. Until one day, a sea gull carrying a can of paint over Mr. Plumbean's house spilled the can of orange paint on his roof leaving the big orange splot.

Everyone was so sad for him. He'd have to repaint his roof to match everyone else's. But he left it for a while, and the neighbors started to get antsy. They urged him to paint his house, so he did. One night, while his neighbors slept, he painted his house with all different colors. The roof he painted blue, except where the orange splot remained. The walls he painted every which color, with pictures of hippos and lions.

Needless to say, the neighbors were a bit upset. He had messed up the neighborhood's look. But the next night, he went further, adding a clock tower to his roof and a rainforest worth of trees to put in his front yard. This was too much for his neighbors. His reply to them? "My house is me, and I am in it. My house is where I like to be, and it looks like all my dreams."

A funny thing happened the next night however. His neighbor had transformed his house into a giant ship! His reply to his other neighbors? "My house is me, and I am in it. My house is where I like to be, and it looks like all my dreams." And one by one, the neighbors began to transform their homes into palaces and castles and hot-air balloons. Soon, there wasn't a single house that looked alike, and it was just how the neighbors liked it.

Sometimes it feels like we're walking through a world where everything and everyone feels a lot like the houses on Mr. Plumbean's street. It feels like everyone is trying to be the same thing. We're all trying to have the right look or use the right phone or post the right pictures. We want to be the same as other people because if we're the same as other people, we think we won't be left out.

I know I've tried to be like other people. I've wanted to be taller, or better looking, or have better knees, or so on and so forth. I've tried to cut my hair in different ways or wear certain clothes. I've tried to do the things and say the things I thought everyone wanted me to do or say. I've tried to just fit in.

I've learned something over the years. The world doesn't need me to be somebody else. It doesn't need me to be any taller, or faster, or better looking, or so one and so forth. It needs me to just. be. me. And it needs you to just. be. you.

There is a beautiful passage in one of Paul's letters to the church at Corinth. In his first letter, he talks about everyone being like a body. Some people are like the nose. Some are like toes. Some are like eyelashes. Some are probably belly buttons and finger nails I guess.  But he keeps the story going. If the foot said to the hand, "I'm not as important as you and I want to be a hand," then the body would be missing a foot and walking would be really hard.

What's Paul's point? Even the people who seem the most different and insignificant are absolutely essential to everyone else. He even says that the eyes have to learn to appreciate the elbows, because without them, how would we grab what we see?

You are irreplaceable. You have a fingerprint to leave on the world that only you can leave. God gave you a smile and a touch and a voice that nobody else has or has EVER had. You are one of a kind, and nobody else can be you. It's tempting to want to be like everyone else, to fit in, to not feel alone. But the truth is, we'd all much rather have the real you and all of the good and the bad and the in between. The world would be BORING if everyone was the same!

And that can be a scary venture, no matter whether you are a teenager or a nearing-retirement executive. To let people see us for who we are and not who we want them to believe we are is a terrifying thing to do. But when we take off the masks it is much easier to see and to smile and be with others. You are beautiful enough. Or funny enough. Or smart enough. Or strong enough. Or brave enough. You are because when God knit you together he looked over you with a smile in his eyes and said, "It is good." And when he looks over you today, he says, "It is still so good."

A funny thing happens when we know who we are. We stop wasting all of our energy trying to be what other people want. Each of us has a story to tell, but if we spend all of our time trying to be like other people, no one will ever get to hear it. Your story is a great story, because it is yours. We're all waiting to hear it. It took a sea gull with a bucket of paint for Mr. Plumbean to tell his story. And when he was finally himself, everyone around him starting becoming themselves. All it takes is one match to start a fire. What will your big orange splot be?

forever unfinished...