Uniquely You

Have you ever noticed that ultimately everyone who tries to be unique becomes a type of what we have seen elsewhere? A singer tries to be unique. He may have a new sound, but his life becomes a pattern of the lives of other singers or writers, actors or businessmen. In trying to break a mold, they become more and more like everyone else. They want to live the way they want to live, so they follow the patterns that others are following blatantly or secretly.

Professor Bruce Herman, in his lecture at Oxford in 2008, stated it this way: "This self-concept is actually more the sum of consumer choices than the wholesome identity one develops through a deep sense of belonging and accountability in community. And individualistic pursuit of self often results in isolation and anomie rather than meaning, belonging, and a sense of vocation.”

"Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else’s opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation." ~ Oscar Wilde

In one of his books, C.S. Lewis explained that the more we try to be originals, the more we become copies. It's as if, in the effort, we use our heads and create ourselves out of our environment and heredity, mimicking what we have known instead of becoming who we are created to be.

"Even in literature and art, no man who bothers about originality will ever be original: whereas if you simply try to tell the truth (without caring twopence how often it has been told before) you will, nine times out of ten, become original without ever having noticed it," says Lewis. "[God] makes each soul unique. If He had no use for all these differences, I do not see why He should have created mores souls than one. Be sure that the ins and outs of your individuality are no mystery to Him; and one day they will no longer be a mystery to you."

Seeking out the Creator may be the only way to become the true original masterpiece He created you to be.

"Never forget that only dead fish swim with the stream." ~ Malcolm Muggeridge