Confession: I am a bit of a rebel. Just a bit (grin). What’s my cause? I’m against the status quo; the norm; the standard; the rule; the cookie cutter life. My objective is to shake up and break up the paradigm that ‘things must be done only this way’ or ‘certain kinds of people must look a certain way or dress a certain way’. When preachers started wearing jeans and t-shirts, I rejoiced. When anointed and passionate worship leaders started appearing covered in tattoos, I was ecstatic. When a government minister abandoned his jacket and tie in parliament for a Nehru-styled shirt, I celebrated emancipation from our colonial masters.
There is something deceptively malevolent about a culture that seeks to define your identity and limit your contribution based on external appearances.
I recently re-discovered a poem from J.R.R. Tolkien. The first two lines:
“All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;”
I love those two lines! It speaks to the folly of inferring intrinsic value and motives based solely on external attributes and behavior. Why is the jacket and tie business attire and preaching attire (especially in a hot Caribbean island)? Does wearing a tie make you smarter… or holier? One of my favourite business travel habits is wearing jeans, a sweater and a beanie when I fly business class. It’s my little way of saying, “The suit does not make the man.”
I believe that variety is a necessity for life. We are in fact depriving ourselves when we force others to fit into our societal molds. Our lives are made better, richer when we are able to experience a wide variety of viewpoints and expressions of life. That’s why I am one of those parents who let my children wear almost anything they want. I’ve been to the mall with a cow, a fairy (complete with wings), a ballerina and a power ranger at various points in my life and I had almost as much fun as the children did.
Sometimes the path of progress is counterintuitive. The gawky college dropout sometimes becomes the industry titan. The drug dealer with the gold teeth could be the one to save your life in a dark alley one night. The tattooed school teacher with the unorthodox teaching style might be the one to bring out the potential in your child that no one else saw. The carpenter who hangs out with prostitutes and drinks wine everyday could be the Son of God.
Look for gold in unlikely people and go where others don’t dare to tread!
Joyfully,
Copyright Matik Nicholls, 2018. All rights reserved.