Just Like Everybody Else

Ezekiel 20:32  “You say, ‘We want to be like the nations all around us, who serve idols of wood and stone.’ But what you have in mind will never happen.

In junior high I had a pair of purple bell bottoms. I had long hair that went to my shoulders.

In high school I had a baby blue polyester leisure suit that I wore for speech tournaments. I also had a pair of black platform shoes. My blond hair was parted down the middle.

In the 80’s, when I still had hair, I got a wild idea to get a perm.

I look back on those choices and wonder, “What was I thinking?”

It’s simple, really: I wanted to be like everybody else. My clothing and hair styles were dictated by the people around me. Wanting to be like everybody else can lead to more than just poor hair and clothing choices, it can lead us away from God.

The nation of Israel was in a great place. God had given them the Promised Land, and things were good. Then they started to look around them, and their desire to be like other nations led them to worships idols of wood and stone, just like the other nations. God wasn’t happy.

Their desire for conformity took them away from God and caused him to punish them. As we look at the world around us, the desire to fit in can do the same thing to us and to our churches.

God has a way to live, and he wants us to be different from the world around us. We can’t let our desire to be like everybody else cause us to adopt a lifestyle that is against God.

Today’s Readings: Ezekiel 20,21; Psalm 111; Revelation 8

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