How "Holy Oddballs" Dress

Recently my mind wandered back to sixth grade (which feels like a century ago).

That was the year school suddenly clicked for me. Until then I’d been an average student, but something changed when I walked into Mrs. V.’s classroom.

Every Monday morning the chalkboard held the entire week: assignments, due dates, tests, pages to be read — all clearly written out. We knew exactly what was expected in order to succeed.

And I loved it!

That year, I learned I thrive on predictability. Give me a clear goal and I’ll aim for it. From the moment I sat down on Monday, I got busy. I worked ahead whenever I could and usually finished everything by Wednesday (have I mentioned I tend to be an overachiever?). My grades rose accordingly.

The lesson I learned that year was simple:
Just tell me what to do and I’ll do it.

I still like checklists. Rubrics. Calendars. Plans.
Write the to-do list on the chalkboard of my life and I’ll go after it.

Which brings me to living as a “holy oddball.”

Lately I’ve found myself wanting the apostle Peter to just give me the bottom line of his instructions:

Tell me what I have to do to live successfully as a social misfit for Christ and I'm all over it.

So, I sat down and filtered the rest of his letter through one statement in 1 Peter 1:13:

 Prepare your minds for action.

After wading through all his instructions — live holy, live reverently, live obediently, love deeply, cling to truth — it finally dawned on me:

Peter’s list is actually one line long, three simple words.

Put on Jesus.

Or to say it another way: imitate Jesus.

Paul says the same thing: 

Imitate me, as I imitate Christ (1 Corinthians 11:1). 

Be imitators of God (Ephesians 5:1).

If Peter were writing on the chalkboard of our lives, he wouldn’t need paragraphs. Just one command:

MIMIC JESUS

The Greek word is mimetes — where we get the word mime.
To copy the actions of another so closely that their life becomes the pattern for yours.

And imitation isn’t passive. It assumes an active relationship.
You watch closely enough that you begin to think like them, respond like them, value what they value. It’s spending enough time with them that you live as close to their heart as humanly possible…

Which means Christian maturity isn’t mastering a spiritual checklist.

It’s knowing Christ well enough that, over time, His reflexes become yours.

So the goal isn’t memorizing more rules (that’s just legalism).

It’s walking so closely with Jesus that when life presses in, your first response begins to look like His (that’s love).

And, that’s the path of the holy oddball.

Is it a commitment you’ve made — not just to believe in Him, but to become like Him?

It’s exactly what Jesus asked of his disciples when He called them - and they knew it was an invitation to discipleship:

Come, follow Me.

(Matthew 4:18-22, Mark 1:17, John 1:43, Matthew 9:9)

Their response? ...and, immediately they -- left their nets, their boats, a lucrative tax collector's job, and some even left other mentors -- and followed Him -- in order to become like Him -- to "put on Jesus."

How do holy oddballs dress? They put on Jesus.

Get Dressed!

I spend far too much time each morning trying to figure out what to wear.  🤷‍♀️

First world problem? Undoubtedly!

Women's issue? Probably! 

For me, it's usually a combination of meeting the following criteria :

• wanting to fit the culture in which I’m currently immersed
• wanting to look nice for my husband (that matters to me)
• the weather
• what’s clean
• and honestly… my mood

Bay laughs, because I have this rule that nothing goes into a suitcase unless I've tried it on first. 

What if that piece of clothing mysteriously changed sizes between the closet and my packing cubes?

So, as we keep talking about "living as holy oddballs," the Apostle Peter surprisingly discusses getting dressed. 

Not literally -- but those first centuries believers knew exactly what he meant.

Here are his words:

Therefore, preparing your minds for action, and being sober-minded, set your hope fully on the grace that will be brought to you at the revelation of Jesus Christ (1 Peter 1:13).

The literal idea of preparing your mind comes from a first century Greek word that everyone understood to mean: 

GET DRESSED FOR WORK!

Pull yourself together mentally.

Pre-determine your response.

Be ready before the moment comes (whatever that moment might entail)...

Peter goes on saying in order to get dressed for work, we also must:

BE SOBER-MINDED!

He's not talking about drunkenness  - he is talking about clarity of thought. 

Living awake.

Thinking deliberately.

Not letting anything cloud our minds.

Knowing what you believe; and, actually living accordingly.

Finally, he adds these three words: 

SET YOUR HOPE!

In other words — solidify your reactions, choices, and attitudes based on the location of your real homeland and its values -- Live out those KINGDOM MORES (you know, the essential or characteristic customs, behaviors and conventions of a community).

I'm reminded very much of Daniel, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, who:

 Resolved they would not defile themselves -- pollute their belief system (Daniel 1:8-20).

They didn’t wait for pressure to decide who they were or what they would do...

They dressed their minds for action first.

Everything we've mentioned (setting our hope, being sober minded, making up our minds) all require a preparation of thought.

So I’m adding something new to my morning routine.

Along with choosing what clothes I'm wearing for the day…

I’m fixin' to get dressed in whatever Peter tells me to wear: 

"Keeping in mind dressing my mind for Kingdom work..."

And, I know this one thing - whatever he suggests, it will cover all the necessary criteria I look for in an outfit.

(Next week we’ll talk about what Peter says to actually wear.)

But, here's Peter's rule of thumb:

Dress your mind with clarity of purpose for living as a Holy Oddball in today's world...dress for the Kingdom work not the world.

Here's a reflection question: what does it look like to "Get dressed for working in God's Kingdom - to mentally prepare ourselves for what we might face in the world around us?"

Anchoring Ourselves Between Here and There

As a kid, I exchanged letters back and forth with my grandmother who lived several hours away (how old fashioned, right?).

We've lost the art of hand-writing letters over the years, with the speed of email and text messages. 

But, there was just something about receiving a little envelope in the mail with my name on it. 

It felt so personal...a gift...and through those letters I carried on a conversation with my gramma, that went on and on, until she could no longer write. 

In those letters, I received, not just words, or advice, or comfort depending on what I'd talked about in my previous letter; but, she sent me a piece of her heart.

XXXXX

It feels like we've been in a conversation that has kept us focused on Peter's first epistle.

Sometimes in the middle of a long conversation we need to pause and remember where we’ve been. 

So, you’re going to see a bit of review today from the last two weeks, because I don't want us to miss receiving a piece of Peter's heart for those he loves.

And, those people Peter loves? Well, they feel like they don’t quite belong anywhere (!!) — and honestly, that should be every one of us who claim to be a follower of Jesus.

It's simple, this world is NOT our home.

We’ve said it a few ways already:

• We are pilgrims, not settlers
• We will feel different (holy oddballs… social misfits)
• God never intended for us to fit in
• Our identity is exile — and strangely — that’s worth celebrating

Peter wrote to people living normal daily lives while carrying an abnormal identity: citizens of another Kingdom.

So, this will be our end goal: 

How do we keep walking through an ordinary world when we belong to an eternal one?

Thus far, Peter has instructed us to ANCHOR ourselves in three realities:

Our salvation
Our future home (obviously, heaven)
Our true identity

XXXXX

Our Salvation

                                                                                                                                                                  

What a gift God has given us!

So massive the prophets strained to understand it.
They searched, studied, and inquired… but were told the fullness of grace wasn’t for them — it was for us.

Grace was their mystery; but it became our reality!

The mystery came to earth for us!

I honestly don’t think we’ll grasp the magnitude of salvation until we see Jesus face-to-face; but it’s important in the HERE, until we get THERE, to ponder it often.

Our Future Home

Heaven is not wishful thinking; it is a living hope.

And it’s not the gold streets or the pearly-white-gates that stir my heart with longing...

Two things do:

I will see Jesus — the One who stood in my place — and worship Him in person.

And every wrong in this world will finally be made right… and stay right forever.

Our True Identity

Salvation didn’t just rescue me — it redeemed me, transformed me, and renamed me -- 

beloved, chosen, restored, set free, daughter of the King...

But, as mentioned, MORE:

Set apart.
Different.
Holy.

(Which is why, we will never feel fully at home, because we live in an unholy world).

But, Peter tell us our immediate response to this is one that doesn't come naturally to any of us (and yet, it's something we can work on in the transition).

When we don't fit in: Rejoice. Jump for joy. Let it show...

Then he goes on with a P.S. 

“Oh, and by the way…

Don’t at all be surprised by suffering and hurt that comes from your new identity as EXILES, HOLY ODDBALLS…

…Trials will come at you in every size and color” 

So the real question —

How do we live with joy when life hurts because we don’t belong here?

Peter's going to answer that next.

But first, sit together with me as we examine this central, key thought of Peter’s letter that will become our ANCHOR in this world-thats-not our home. He’s telling us to get ready to employ these things:

Prepare your minds for action. Be sober-minded. Set your hope fully on the grace to be revealed in Jesus Christ… and be holy in all your conduct. (1 Peter 1:13–14)

Next week we begin there, because to endure hardship, we have to cultivate our conduct…and that starts in the mind.

In the meantime…

Look closely at the words in those two verses.

Define them.

Turn them over in your mind.

What do you think Peter's trying to tell us? 

We’re about to learn how exiles actually live.

A Passport Stamped by Mercy

The older I get, the less I seem to care what other people think about me.

Not completely — let’s be honest — but the grip of needing approval has definitely loosened. The hunger for pats on the back isn’t nearly as "rumbly" as it once was.

Something has slowly replaced it.

The more I’ve learned to believe what God says about me — how He values me, and the beauty of an identity rooted in Christ (not self-identity, Christ-identity) — the freer I’ve become to simply do what I’m called to do.

No nods in my direction required.

But that truth took a long time to travel from my head to my heart. Years, actually.

Which is why I can now say this without flinching:

Being a holy oddball is perfectly OK.

Actually… it’s worth CELEBRATING!

Because the Christian life was never meant to look normal. Scripture never promises cultural comfort. Instead it uses words like pilgrim, exile, stranger, foreigner, set apart, peculiar.

Not broken. Not misplaced. Not forgotten.

Just different — on purpose.

I’m walking through a world that doesn’t quite fit me anymore, and honestly, I won’t ever fit — and don’t want to! 

But that tension no longer unsettles me the way it used to, because I know where the road leads.

There is a place waiting — guarded, reserved, untouched by decay.
Imperishable (beyond the reach of change).
Undefiled (uncorruptible - imagine!).
Unfading (eternally vibrant and fresh, will not/can not disappear).

Peter explains why this isn’t wishful thinking:

“According to His great mercy, He has caused us to be born again to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ” (1 Peter 1:3)."

That sentence anchors everything.

My future isn’t based on personality, performance, usefulness, reputation, or how well I’m received. It rests entirely on the resurrection of Jesus and the mercy of God.

Just as Jesus encouraged Nicodemus, I’ve been born again — born into a new Kingdom. Not earned, not achieved, not maintained by good behavior, but given by grace through faith (Ephesians 2:8-9).

A gift.

Which means my citizenship changed long before my location ever will.  How about you? 

So yes… I’m becoming more comfortable being a holy oddball.

Not for attention.
Not out of pride.
Not to prove how different I am.

AND BY ALL MEANS NOT TO BE UNUSUAL FOR THE SAKE OF UNUSUALNESS!

But because when Christ becomes everything, you inevitably become different.

His Spirit reshapes your love, your want-to, your responses, your ambitions, your definitions of success. And, eventually, you realize: you’re living out of a different homeland-mindset while still residing here.

You still care about people — deeply.
You just stop needing them to validate you.

So today I’m praying you embrace your peculiarity with joy.

Not awkwardness.
Not defensiveness.
Joy.

Because the passport you carry here is temporary.

But the one stamped by Mercy?
That one never expires.

REFLECTION: 

By the way...Yesterday was the first day of Lent. This is a great season to evaluate where your journey ends? Where is your "real" passport country? What mind-set are you living out of?

 One of the best ways to survive living as a holy oddball is to imagine not just what Christ has done for you through salvation, but what you've been saved to - HEAVEN'S JOYS.