Different

I have a lot of white hair. I do not know why. I remembered a nurse once told me when I was little that because of my grey hair, when I grow up I will be very rich and smart.

Well, I don't think I am that smart. And I ain't rich either.

I was ridiculed when I was little. Not by words but even how they act, you know people treat you different. Like some sort of out cast.

I also remembered every night I would pull 10 white hair. It hurt a bit. I did it for about a month. I didn't have less white hair.

In my imagination, I also wish there was a machine that would attract all the white hair. You know, like when static is causing your hair to stick out like these:


Then we can pull all the white hair out in one shot. I am sure that would hurt a lot (as I do have a lot of them).

That never happened either.

As I grow up, I started to see myself I am different than most. At certain periods of my time, I was the outcast. I also tried to blend in to be accepted. And whenever I do, I always end up with an aftertaste that something is not right.

One of the lessons I learn in the later days of school, it is realizing that I am created in a certain way.

Becoming Christian, I am free. Free from sin and free from comparison. I no longer have to follow the standard of man. I am also free from my own standard of myself. And this is a mirror that I often found distorted from reality.

I do not need to compare to anyone. Not even myself. By God's Grace and Jesus' blood, I am free from that.

When I was little, I asked my mom if I can dye my hair black. I so desire to fit into the norm.

Now as I grow up, my hair is still white. I ain't that smart. And I am still working my 9-5er. So I ain't rich either.

Though nowadays, I care less about my hair. Afterall, this is how the Creator crafted me. And I no longer compare no more.

I dye it once in a while. More often than not, it is not because I have a desire to be part of the norm. It is because my mom thinks it is much better to dye it to look professional in the business world. Irony indeed ;o). In doing so, I honor my parents.

...and as I look and serve in Church and living as a Christian, I often wonder, do I do what I do to fit into the norms of the Christian culture? Do I accept others to be different because that's how God created them?

Do I ask people to accept who I am at the same time, becoming a Pharisee, and tell them to fit into my 'rules' and 'expectation' as a Christian? If they don't fit into my 'mold' of Christian, do I condemn them?

1 Corinthians 12:7-11

7Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good. 8To one there is given through the Spirit the message of wisdom, to another the message of knowledge by means of the same Spirit, 9to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by that one Spirit, 10to another miraculous powers, to another prophecy, to another distinguishing between spirits, to another speaking in different kinds of tongues,^[a] and to still another the interpretation of tongues.^[b] 11All these are the work of one and the same Spirit, and he gives them to each one, just as he determines.