"Get Used To Different"

“Sitting down, Jesus called the Twelve and said, “If anyone wants to be first, he must be the very last, and the servant of all.”   Mark 9:35 NIV

I have been watching on TV the series of “The Chosen” which brings alive the Gospels and how Jesus chose his twelve disciples and lived his ministry here on earth.  In one of the episodes, Peter says, “that was different.”  Jesus responds, “Get used to different.”

We tend to develop routines which are good to keep us structured and organized.  We frequent the same stores and restaurants though sometimes venturing out to try something a friend recommends.  We wear the same clothes because they feel comfortable.  Over the past years of the COVID pandemic, some have kept to their small family group and stayed more at home.  It has become familiar and comfortable.

But then something happens that shakes our familiar, our routine, our security, our daily normal life.  And life becomes different.  We change.  Life changes.  We are different in how we view the world and cannot grasp how and why life was turned upside down.  Life was good, and now we feel uncertain and question everything.  Life is different and we do not want it to be and desire how life used to be.

So how do we get used to the different because the old life is not coming back?  For me, I had to take the layers off of life and find the core of myself and my anchor.  Everything around me looked and felt different even though others seemed not to recognize it.  How I viewed life, relationships, and priorities became different because of loss.  It felt like my relationship with God was different, too, and it was.  I recognized my dependency was in God alone, and I grew closer to Him.  I was not strong enough to journey alone nor was I made to go alone.  My anchor, my firm foundation was in God who never changes.  When I focused on God, my Father, who loves me and is my safety and security, I began to live in this different life.  I did not embrace it at first but acknowledged this is what I now have.  I am embracing this different life now.

Life will never stay the same because we were designed to change and grow. You do not look or act like you did twenty years ago.  You grow, mature, and change, so why would not your life and relationships change and be different?

This journey of life with Jesus requires us to embrace being different than the world.  In the series, “The Chosen,” Jesus chooses his disciples for their uniqueness and embraces their differences.  Jesus affirms their abilities and assures them they will understand the purpose and mission as they live close to Him.

Your life is different than you expected and planned.  You cannot change the loss and the pain and hurt that comes from it.  It has made you who you are not be choice but because of the events of your life.

I have been on the search for who I am in this different life.  I am getting used to different and embracing it.  I even look for ways to be different and to incorporate different things into my life.  Instead of fighting against the different and trying to maintain the familiar and comfortable, I desire to find the different.  In this quest, the things the world and others say are what I should be doing or worrying about, I am releasing to God.  I am depending more on God not on pleasing others or living in the expectations of others.  It is saying “no” to whatever distracts me from living closer to Jesus.  It is not worrying and being anxious about future events that are out of my control.  It is being present in the moment with Jesus, and it is relying on His Spirit to give me strength, words, direction, and peace.

Life is going to be different.  You can struggle against it trying to maintain an old normal, familiar routine that will never satisfy because there is always an empty space because of loss.  Or you can get used to different and embrace Jesus who walks with you in this different.  When you turn to Jesus, you will find yourself living in this different life.