At times, what appears to be an inconvenience is actually a gift.
I never seemed to fit into any specific group.
The “jocks” were often too cool for me, I wasn’t smart enough to understand the “nerds”, and I couldn’t carry a tune in a bucket so the band kids were never my group.
For most of high school I bounced around from group to group. I would talk with my friends in the band one day, next I would try to hold an intelligent conversation with the “nerds” but that only lasted so long before the conversation got way over my head.
I was athletic but never good enough to be fully accepted by the jocks.
I understood the “country folks” best. They wore hats, boots, jeans, and cotton shirts.
Yet, I was never able to truly fit into any specific group.
I constantly hopped from one group to another. Honestly, it was frustrating.
I wanted to fit in.
I desperately wanted to be accepted by someone, by anyone.
It wasn’t until after high school I realized this was a gift.
A strange gift, but a gift none the less.
I realized I was able to connect to a vast array of people with varying differences. This ability helps me today.
I can relate to individuals that others cannot or dare not try to relate too.
Its rarely comfortable connecting and striving to relate to people, especially when those people are vastly different from myself.
The difficulties I faced in high school trying to fit in I now use to reach out to people who might not feel loved, or worthy of friendship, or even worthy of life itself.
I am now beginning to understand what Paul meant in 1 Corinthians 9: 22 – 23 when he said “ I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.”
Paul never really fit in anywhere.
He was a Roman citizen, a Jew, a pharisee, and finally an apostle. None of these groups wanted much to do with Paul at one point or another in his life.
Yet, he is accredited with spreading the Gospel and connecting with people everywhere he went, even up to the last days of his life.
How will you use the struggles you have faced to benefit others?