It is never easy to be out of the ordinary. When we’re teenagers and trying to fit in at school, or adults trying to find our place on the corporate ladder, or parents trying to raise kids who can keep up, the world always has expectations we think we need to live up to. No matter how old we are, there is always “conventional wisdom” we think we’re supposed to buy into, standards for believing and behaving that we’re told will keep us on the right track with everyone else.

The message of the cross goes against the world’s grain. In a world that values power, prestige, and prosperity, the cross is a “foolish” story of surrender, servanthood, and sacrifice. The conventional wisdom of school, or the workplace, or even the church may try to tell us that money is what matters, or that we are our grades/degrees/jobs, or that the majority opinion is the right one.

When the world speaks, let’s listen instead to what the cross has to say — that we are set apart. We are servants. We are beloved.

By Nikki Finkelstein-Blair from d365.org