In the drawer of my kitchen rest three familiar shapes: A reindeer, Christmas tree and Santa Claus. Only once a year do I ever pull these cookie cutters out and use them (unless I want my family to think I’m stark raving mad and commit me to the “funny farm”). A cookie is a cookie, right? Not really. The shape, decoration and timing of a cookie make a cookie a cookie. Somehow Christmas cookies seem odd to make or eat during the summer, just as it would if I lit Fourth of July fireworks during a Thanksgiving celebration. While my family would laugh at my quirkiness, my neighbors might think I’m insane……
“1 Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, 2 then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. 3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, 4 not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” (Philippians 2:1-4 TNIV)
Nobody (really) wants to be just like everyone else. There’s nothing wrong with being “yourself”, uniquely and definitively who you were made to be (fireworks and all). The more important thing to be as a Christian is not to be a “cookie-cutter” (being like everyone else) in order to be accepted, but to be a “one-minded Christian” (being uniquely “you” while respecting others with humility and sincerity). Timing is everything and sometimes it does make a difference in how effective you’ll be if you just focus on yourself (your opinion, beliefs and attitude), too much. Unity creates “one mindedness” with its focus upon the greater interest for betterment of the body of Christ. Fitting into a mold only does one thing; stops God’s purpose from living and breathing through your life in the unique way for which He has purposed. So……are you a “cookie-cutter versus one-minded Christian”? There’s a big difference between the two; the former makes you think you’re accepted and the latter lets you know you are.
Thought to live by: Being of one mind in Christ takes the focus off of me and puts it where it should be: on Him.
“Who’s your Daddy; knowing God as Abba Father” is a devotional written by Pat Ferguson, Copyright © 2011, All Rights Reserved
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