The Peculiar Way
“It clearly isn’t working.”
How often have you heard that—or something like it—from your friends and family in recent days? It is a constant refrain and it comes from every possible worldview and walk of life. It is abundantly clear to almost everybody that there is a tremendous amount of brokenness in our world, and that the current approaches being offered are clearly not working.
But acknowledging the hard reality above and finding the courage to chart a different path are two different things. The first requires humility because it concedes that a previous opinion or belief may have been imperfect. The second, however, requires an entirely different level of surrender, because it involves an embrace of the peculiar. It requires a commitment to a road less travelled, and one routinely mocked.
It is also the approach with the potential to radically change the world if you will choose it.
Consider for a moment how Jesus guided His disciples. The predominant and prevailing cultural postures of the day were to either follow the religious and political leaders or to rail against them. We see this illustrated in Matthew 22:15-22 when Jesus is asked whether His followers should pay the imperial tax. Jesus declines to take the bait (in either direction) and instead points out that His followers are focused on a different Kingdom altogether. He then asserts that Caesar should have what belongs to Caesar and God should have what belongs to God.
It was neither a call to disengage from culture nor a call conquer through the mechanisms of culture.
It was a call to a different—and peculiar—way (1 Pet. 2:9).
You stand at a similar crossroads today. Nearly every story or happening in your world is immediately accompanied by two competing narratives, and each of them are rooted in some truth and an absolute prohibition on giving any quarter whatsoever to any portion of the other narrative. This is the vicious cycle that is clearly not working, and my friend, it is not working because it is not intended to work. The unstated goal of the entrenched and opposing narratives is to perpetually fuel the outrage industry.
Your approach is different, because it is not only intended to work, it also has the power to work! Your approach is not to disengage and it is not to perpetuate the chaos. It is to break through the chaos with the approach Jesus modeled by engaging cultural in a way that aims for eternal impact rather than temporary conquest.
It is a refreshing and life-giving approach, and it contains permission to acknowledge there are often important truths embedded in each of the entrenched and opposing narratives. That is not to say there is always moral equivalence between the two—there often is not! But your aim is something much higher than an edge for your preferred narrative. You are aiming for eternal impact and for Truth to reach souls in a life-saving capacity! Be forewarned: Though this approach is refreshing and life-giving, it is also peculiar. It is an approach that will not be applauded by either of the prevailing narratives of your day.
So remind yourself today, how often have you recently heard, “It clearly isn’t working”?
There is a better way. It is the peculiar way.