mattbraunlin
Member
The Price of Individuality
To Søren Kierkegaard
The price of individuality is loneliness. Pain. Anger. Sometimes pure despair.
A man who takes one side of a debate is hated only by those who take the other. But the individual - the one who condemns the debate itself as trite and immaterial in the shadow of the big picture - is hated by all.
When I was fifteen - and nineteen, and twenty-one, and thirty two, and thirty-four again - I was condemned to be an individual. I have had to come to terms with the fact that God chose me to be a space-monkey, and there has never been a choice of turning back.
You don't realize how few true individuals there are until you make the unpleasant discovery that you are one. So very few, and I doubt whether a single one of them is happy.
Many go halfway. They dress flashy, they have a will to be weird. But most of them stop when it gets scary. When they feel how cold the waters of individuality are, ninety percent retreat back to the shore, and most of the rest follow suit when they see the first shark.
And only the tiniest remnant follow Christ.
Do you have any idea how much it sucks to be a Christ-follower? Do you know the gloom and danger inherent in the willingness to go absolutely anywhere he leads you?
He promised that, and to do so regardless is the ultimate distillation of the concept of the individual.
Friend, when Christ said Follow me, he sure as hell wasn't inviting you to a stroll in the park. Peter followed Christ straight to his own cross. Following Christ is mortally dangerous, and every step of that journey is designed to make you more and more willing to follow Peter's example were you asked.
Are you willing to accept an undertaking that could lead to your bloody death? Are you willing to undergo a change of heart which would make you rejoice at your own destruction?
That hasn't happened for me yet. But I am an individual. I follow Christ. And as a result I am so lonely I might as well be on the dark side of the moon. I am misunderstood, feared, sometimes even maligned as I follow my Saviour into the unknown. I have known rage and anguish, terror and despair as God's Spirit has worked in my heart.
That is what it means to follow Christ. It means a fundamentally difficult and frightening existence on the front lines of spiritual warfare.
But I can at least say that I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
Writing this blurb is not making me happy. But it brings me indescribable Joy. How beautiful that I should be called by Christ! How very much I have learned since God sheltered my ruined spirit and set me apart.
How I have loved sharing my love of Jesus Christ with you!
If you are one of those few who would follow, you had better brace yourself. All hell will be thrown at you for your audacity in defying the powers of this world. You might even die, as all but one of the twelve disciples did.
But you know, one of the reasons I study history is because it is a far more exciting story than any work of fiction. And you have the opportunity to play a lead role. Jesus' hand is outstretched. All you need to do is take it, and he will save your soul, change your life, and make you very lonely.
With him.
To Søren Kierkegaard
The price of individuality is loneliness. Pain. Anger. Sometimes pure despair.
A man who takes one side of a debate is hated only by those who take the other. But the individual - the one who condemns the debate itself as trite and immaterial in the shadow of the big picture - is hated by all.
When I was fifteen - and nineteen, and twenty-one, and thirty two, and thirty-four again - I was condemned to be an individual. I have had to come to terms with the fact that God chose me to be a space-monkey, and there has never been a choice of turning back.
You don't realize how few true individuals there are until you make the unpleasant discovery that you are one. So very few, and I doubt whether a single one of them is happy.
Many go halfway. They dress flashy, they have a will to be weird. But most of them stop when it gets scary. When they feel how cold the waters of individuality are, ninety percent retreat back to the shore, and most of the rest follow suit when they see the first shark.
And only the tiniest remnant follow Christ.
Do you have any idea how much it sucks to be a Christ-follower? Do you know the gloom and danger inherent in the willingness to go absolutely anywhere he leads you?
He promised that, and to do so regardless is the ultimate distillation of the concept of the individual.
Friend, when Christ said Follow me, he sure as hell wasn't inviting you to a stroll in the park. Peter followed Christ straight to his own cross. Following Christ is mortally dangerous, and every step of that journey is designed to make you more and more willing to follow Peter's example were you asked.
Are you willing to accept an undertaking that could lead to your bloody death? Are you willing to undergo a change of heart which would make you rejoice at your own destruction?
That hasn't happened for me yet. But I am an individual. I follow Christ. And as a result I am so lonely I might as well be on the dark side of the moon. I am misunderstood, feared, sometimes even maligned as I follow my Saviour into the unknown. I have known rage and anguish, terror and despair as God's Spirit has worked in my heart.
That is what it means to follow Christ. It means a fundamentally difficult and frightening existence on the front lines of spiritual warfare.
But I can at least say that I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world.
Writing this blurb is not making me happy. But it brings me indescribable Joy. How beautiful that I should be called by Christ! How very much I have learned since God sheltered my ruined spirit and set me apart.
How I have loved sharing my love of Jesus Christ with you!
If you are one of those few who would follow, you had better brace yourself. All hell will be thrown at you for your audacity in defying the powers of this world. You might even die, as all but one of the twelve disciples did.
But you know, one of the reasons I study history is because it is a far more exciting story than any work of fiction. And you have the opportunity to play a lead role. Jesus' hand is outstretched. All you need to do is take it, and he will save your soul, change your life, and make you very lonely.
With him.