nothing special

[Christ_empowered]

How many times have you heard that said of a person, place, situation? What does it really mean? And what is it with our culture always encouraging people to strive to be "special" ?

 

[CORE]

How many times have you heard that said of a person, place, situation? What does it really mean?

It could mean that somebody is boosting their own ego and then somebody else is simply trying to bring them back down to reality....or maybe somebody else is just jealous and trying to boost their own ego by degrading somebody's accomplishment by saying it's nothing special...

And what is it with our culture always encouraging people to strive to be "special" ?

I don't see that in our culture...This culture seems to encourage impulsive brain-dead conformity, whether it's being in love with justin beiber, or cheesy christian rock worship, etc....

If there is anything pure in the desire to being "special," then it is simply for the desire to advance society.

 

[Kathi]

It is just a worldly term.It just means that the person/place was not important to them.We are all special in God's eyes so that should be most important to the Christian.

 

[Danus]

How many times have you heard that said of a person, place, situation? What does it really mean? And what is it with our culture always encouraging people to strive to be "special" ?

It's part of mans nature to think of, and strive, to be, or to be thought of, something more highly then he is. It's just a prideful element of man's nature, and it reflects what is important to himself, that which he may say is "special." Often we can come to a collective agreement about the same things; like works of art, sports figures, magnificent structures and such. Humility is something we are called to remember in relation to our salvation.

Romans 12:3 - For by the grace given me I say to every one of you: Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment, in accordance with the faith God has distributed to each of you.

The sinful nature of man is to worship himself. This should be quite clear to anyone alive in the world. We worship things like beauty, position, talent, power, and knowledge; That which we see in ourselves and others and that we have associated with mankind and not God. Why do we do this? Because of sin. we are by nature, sinners. When I say "we" I mean all of man.

It's one thing to look at our own pride and discount it. How many times do we see the the church espouse pride in their own sinlessness while pointing out the pride of others? But, when we look at the pride of mankind collectively, culturally, socially we really began to see how utterly impacted we are by it, and it becomes difficult to separate ourselves from the wold. So, to answer the question; "what is it with our culture always encouraging people to strive to be "special" ?" we need look no further than Gods word. Sin is what's with our culture encouraging others to be more than perhaps what they are. Man, in his fallen sinfulness, worships "things" rather than God.

Romans 1:25 - They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

We can also say, that God encourages us to be and do the best we can in relation to our service to Him, that's true. and we are special in Gods eye not because we've done anything, but rather because he loves us, and we reciprocate that love for Him. But we don't want to confuse what it means when God calls us special in relation to the worlds definition of special.

 

[reba]

Thanks Danus nicely said