Snowflake Propaganda

"Behold, I go forward but He is not there, 

And backward, but I cannot perceive Him; 

When He acts on the left, I cannot behold Him; 

He turns on the right, I cannot see Him. 

But He knows the way I take; 

When He has tried me, I shall come forth as gold. 

My foot has held fast to His path; 

I have kept His way and not turned aside. 

I have not departed from the command of His lips; 

I have treasured the words of His mouth more than my necessary food. 

But He is unique and who can turn Him? 

And what His soul desires, that He does."

Job 23:8-13

I think you might need to take a seat for this blog today because I have some bad news, and here it is: the Bible doesn't say you're a snowflake.

Now, for those of you who attend HBCSL most likely you know what I am talking about because David talks about snowflakes all the time.  But for those of you who have no idea what I am referencing, let me explain.  Snowflakes are supposedly unique - no two snowflakes are identical. (In researching this claim, I came upon a thought provoking question - if there were two identical, who would know?) So living life believing you are a snowflake - and heaven forbid, raising your children to believe they are snowflakes - means you believe you are truly special, unique - there's no one like you, which makes you even more wonderful.

Unfortunately this mindset is not just a worldly mindset - it is a big part of the church, as well.  Haven't you ever heard someone say, "His testimony is so powerful - God has big things in store for him!" Or, "That guy?  Oh, he's a rockstar!  You should hear him sing!"  Or, "She's a genius!  Three years old and can already recite the Gettysburg address!"  Praise, praise, praise - we praise ourselves and believe the lie that there is something new under the sun and it's…ME!  Ta-da!

Okay, friends, how about a dose of truth.  What does God's word actually say about us?  Ecclesiastes 1:9 says, "That which has been is that which will be, and that which has been done, is that which will be done.  So there is nothing new under the sun."  So not much new.  Jeremiah 17:9 says, "The heart is deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know it?"  And Isaiah 64:6 calls our righteousness filthy rags.  So deep down we're pretty normal and normal means rotten to the core.

But there is good news -  I Peter 2:9 says, "But you are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, so that you may proclaim the excellencies of Him who called you out of darkness into His marvelous light."  Hmmm. I think I like that better. It makes me feel better about myself, right?

Well, friends, I just got to the heart of the problem - we spend too much time trying to feel better about ourselves and no where near enough time proclaiming the excellencies of the One who called us out of the darkness and into the light.  As John the Baptist so humbly declared, "He must increase, I must decrease."  Instead of looking for our uniqueness in a world full of snowflake wannabes, we should look to the One who was truly unique - the One who created with the sound of His voice, who holds the universe in place, who tells the waters how high to wash onto the shore and who gives sustenance to the birds of the air. The One who left His throne in heaven to put on flesh, endured the mocking and accusations of a completely rotten to the core society, hung on a cross and bore the wrath of His Father in our place so that He could claim us as His own.  The One who uses the earth as His footstool, always sees the big picture, understands the big picture and is operating within the big picture, is preparing a place for us and is coming with an army of angels to get us. He alone is unlike anyone else and He alone deserves our praise.

Jesus. (Just stop and take a breath, then say His name again - it's refreshing.)

As Job reminds us above, let us remember the uniqueness of our God and spend much less time proclaiming our own personal uniqueness to a world who couldn't care less ("own" and "personal" were purposefully redundant).  Let's stop competing for the attention which Jesus alone deserves and demands.  Let's put an end to snowflake propaganda and start proclaiming loudly the excellencies of the One who called us out of the darkness and into the light.