It’s ok to be a different kind of fish than the others.
SHAUNA: This is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada Sharing Hope with a really good fish story from Joni.
JONI: When my friend Melanie moved into their new home some years ago, she quickly began painting each child's room, making it fit the personality of the family. The upstairs bathroom was to be shared by her seven-year-old son and her two-year-old daughter. So, Melanie decided to give it a fish theme since, at that time, they were living not far from the Pacific Ocean.
Around the walls of the bathroom, she painted schools of fish all going in the same direction. But then she decided to do something – she decided to use the paintings in that bathroom as an object lesson for her children. Though her kids were being raised as Christians, attending Christian school and had Christian friends, she recognized that her kids would be swimming steadily along with all the other fish in school, being tempted by the same attractive bait and fancy lures. During one of her famous sermonettes to help her kids be distinct and not follow the crowd, Melanie decided to create a visual reminder to encourage them to boldly go where no fish had swam before! On the bathroom mural, with scores of fish swimming from left to right, Melanie added one little fish, swimming alone in the opposite direction.
It meant that whenever her kids would come into the bathroom in the morning to get ready, they could not help but spot that one little fish swimming by himself. Sure, he stood out; yes, he wasn’t going with the flow; and yes, he was the odd fish out, but it would serve as a visual reminder to her kids, you've got to swim against the crowd. Truth be told, we all want to fit in, don’t we? There is an element of herd mentality in all of us. Most of us wait for something to be “in style” before we wear it. We go deeper into debt to live in a certain neighborhood or drive nicer cars. We are much more likely to voice an opinion if we knew that others in our hearing are in general agreement.
But God calls us to swim against the crowd which sometimes means being that one solitary fish swimming alone in the opposite direction. He asks us to come apart; come out from the world and be separate, swim against the current. That's what being holy as God is holy is all about; it means being unique, set apart, being different. The Apostle Peter teaches us this in 1 Peter 8:9-10, where he says, “You are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, [a fish swimming against the school of other fish] you are a people belonging to God that you might declare the praises of him who has called you out of darkness and into his wonderful light. Once you were not a people but now you are the people of God. Once you had not received mercy but now you have received mercy.”
You know, it's not easy for Melanie's children to be the odd fish out in school, even a Christian school. But as Melanie will quote from 1 John 2:6, “Whoever claims to live in Jesus, must walk as Jesus did.” And sometimes that will feel real different. Her kids think of that every time they put their finger on that little fish swimming on the bathroom wall.
SHAUNA: And speaking of fish, do you need help staying strong as you’re swimming upstream to the glory of God? Well, swim our way and visit us at joniradio.org where you’ll find schools of great encouragement from Joni [See what I did there?]. Listening friend, we want to pray for you. Go to joniradio.org today and leave your prayer request. And be sure to share that link with a friend in need of encouragement too. It’s joniradio.org.
© Joni and Friends