Jerry and I took our seats at a table by the restaurant’s front window. As we
waited on our lunches of chicken salad, I enjoyed taking in the quaint décor―tea
pitchers, paintings, and signs with various messages. My gaze landed on one
sitting on a mantel. It hit home, almost as if it were meant for me. It read, “You are
stranger than you know.”
Often, I’ll think I’m being a normal person, but then I realize like
all writers, my nature makes me a little weird. After all, I make up stories
all day. That in itself should qualify me for some degree of strangeness.
I go to sporting events and spend more time taking in the people around
me than what’s happening in the game. You never know when you might find a good
character.
I find myself in the middle of a conversation and all of a sudden, I’ll
take a step back and realize I could use it in a book.
The fictional world in my mind pops up at the most inconvenient times. You don't want to know.
When someone asks me about my story, I usually give some lame answer
because I’ve experienced the truth of the adage if you talk too much about your
writing, the story can get away from you.
People ask me what I’ve been doing all day, and when I tell them I’ve
been getting rid of –ly words, a normal
task for me, they stare at me, glazed.
I am stranger than I know. “Look at that sign,” I said to Jerry. “It’s
true.”
“It is true.” He smiled, put his
hand on mine, and added, “You are stronger than you know.”
I took a closer look at the sign. I had misread it. The word was
stronger not stranger.
Hey, but maybe, I’m stronger because I am stranger. Being different can
make us have a firmer resolve, a more steadfast commitment to the purpose God
has for us.
Last week, I watched an interview with one of the Olympic skiers. When
she first started she couldn’t get enough of the drills. Down the slope and
right back up again for more. Everyone else was whining and complaining. Not her.
They thought she was strange. Our passions set us apart.
Perhaps, we’re all a little stranger than we know when it comes to what ignites our hearts. It’s okay. It makes us the unique people we are. It can
make us strong.
And God can use all of this for His glory.
“Body and soul, I am marvelously made! I worship in adoration―what
a creation! You know me inside and out, you know every bone in my body; You
know exactly how I was made, bit by bit, how I was sculpted from nothing into
something” (Psalm 139:14-15).