If it seems today like everyone is trying to be “unique,” that may be because the west has made an idol of individuality. The fact is that human beings are indeed unique, but we also need God and others more than we need to feel different from everyone else.
While it is a fact that our Creator created us all with a certain degree of uniqueness, He also made us very much alike in other ways. In those common aspects of our humanity, He desired that we would identify with and support each other (even as we look first to Him in our lives).
Making our vaunted individuality so primary to what we consider to be “the pursuit of happiness” has cost us something far more important, that is our ability to put ourselves in a secondary position to the deeper need for both God and for authentic community and healthy interdependence with other people. It has also affected our ability to worship the Creator more than the creature.
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” Romans 12:4 ESV
This thought was written by Shea Oakley. Shea is Primary Contributor for FCAP Social Media and also serves on our Advisory Board.
